Supporters and critics alike often say that the worst thing about Trump was that “he says mean things” or simply “the tweets.”
This begs the question that when Twitter executives decided to permanently ban Trump from the platform earlier this year, did they inadvertently do him a favor?
Bear with me for a moment.
To be clear, the Twitter ban has not completely cut Trump off from communicating with his supporters and the world. He recently sent out press releases endorsing Louisiana’s John Kennedy and South Carolina’s Tim Scott. He also sent out an attack on establishment swamp architect Karl Rove after Rove wrote a piece in the Wall Street Journal criticizing Trump’s speech from CPAC.
However, a press release takes a little more time and thought to fire off than a spontaneous tweet does. Trump’s tendency to compose unfiltered, hot headed jabs, was one of his biggest liabilities with people who have delicate sensibilities... and Twitter has - sort of - forced him to hone his messaging.
So instead of off the cuff tweets like this one, which helped rally the Democratic caucus (and their media allies) at a time where there was very public fighting:
We're getting more of this:
and this:
This messaging is more direct, focused and free of MOST of the pettiness commonly associated with Trump's old Twitter account. Sure, it lacks the reach and hilarity that his supporters came to love and admire, but Trump's base is already fairly locked in and his electoral weakness is most obvious with suburban whites - the people most susceptible to "feeling bad' about his Tweets.
It seems to me that a Trump that remains present, but not OMNIPRESENT like he was for the past six years, is the Trump with the best chance of winning again in 2024 - should he decide to run. Four years of Sleepy Joe's policies, raising gas prices, open borders, and woke finger wagging, coupled with less "mean Tweets" from Trump, may be a recipe for people to reconsider whether or not they'd vote for Trump's return.
Now, If Trump finds himself publishing stream of consciousness rants again on a new platform, it will allow the media to ignore what Biden is actually doing and focus on what Trump is only saying. In fact, though they'd never admit this publicly, I'd wager that there is nothing that Democrats and the media would like more than for Twitter to allow Trump back on their platform. It would give the media something to talk about on a near constant basis - and allow Democrats to focus their messaging on the things Trump says, despite no longer holding any power.
As the old proverb says “absence makes the heart grow fonder" and I wish that President Trump and his advisors see that Twitter may have very well done him a favor when they banned his account. There is much to be gained by keeping a lower profile and allowing Joe Biden to govern Democrats into a whole come 2024,
We shall see, though. Trump is slated to start a new social networking platform in "2-3 months" according to Jason Miller, a Senior Adviser to the Trump Campaign. If he follows through on that plan, Trump will assuredly want to make waves and entertain users of his new platform. If he does, let's hope he remembers that SOMETIMES, less is more. And a Donald Trump without his Twitter baggage is a Donald Trump that's more likely to win votes that he needs to return to the White House.
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