Trump returns to site formerly known as Twitter to post his mug after Georgia surrender

Former US President Donald Trump has returned to X, the social media site formerly known as Twitter, firing off his first message in more than two years shortly after he surrendered at an Atlanta jail on charges he conspired to overturn his election loss.

He posted a photo of his mug shot and the words “Election interference. Never surrender!” along with a link to his website, which directs to a fundraising page.

It was Trump’s first post since 8 January 2021, when Twitter suspended his account indefinitely, citing fears he would incite additional violence following the deadly storming of the US Capitol building. 

His account was reinstated last November shortly after Elon Musk took over the company. But Trump had refrained from tweeting, insisting that he was happier on his own Truth Social site, which he launched during the ban.

Trump’s surrender came a day after he skipped the first Republican primary debate, choosing instead to tape an interview with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson that was posted on X at the start of the debate.

After his brief time at the jail in Georiga, Trump was released on $200,000 bond [€185,000] and headed back to the airport for his return flight home to New Jersey, flashing a thumbs-up through the window of his sport utility vehicle as his motorcade left.

Unrepentant but subdued after the brief jail visit, he again insisted that he “did nothing wrong” and called the case accusing him of subverting election results a “travesty of justice.”

“If you challenge an election, you should be able to challenge an election,” he told reporters on the airport tarmac.

Trump’s social media presence

Trump, the frontrunner for the Republican nominee, has 86.6 million followers on X, dwarfing his rivals in the 2024 race.

The controversial former US president also returned to Facebook in March, posting, “I’M BACK!” weeks after his personal account there was reactivated.

But he has stuck with Truth Social, the X lookalike he launched after he was suspended from Twitter and Facebook. That has included using the platform to break news of his indictments and planned surrenders as he has faced a mounting list of legal woes.

As part of his deal with Digital World Acquisition Corp. to take Truth Social public, Trump had agreed — so he wouldn’t compete against his own company — that it would be the “first channel” for “any and all social media communications and posts coming from his personal profile,” according to a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

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That included an exclusivity clause in which the former president was “generally obligated to make any social media post on Truth Social and may not make the same post on another social media site for 6 hours” for a period of 18 months, beginning 22 December 2021. That period ended in June.