The media layoffs continue unabated. The former president’s blog, From the Desk of Donald J. Trump, has ceased all editorial operations, deleted its website and all existing posts, and let go of what was presumably its only staffer (Trump).
Following months of bragging that he would start his own platform after being booted from Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and Twitter, Trump finally launched a blog in early May. The ex-president’s posts on the larger social media sites had regularly gathered tens to hundreds of thousands of shares, inspired violence such as the Jan. 6 riots at the Capitol that caused five deaths and scores of injuries, and sometimes invoked the specter of nuclear war. For comparison, data from analytics firms showed Trump’s blog (complete with its share on Facebook or Twitter buttons) had gathered somewhere around 221,000 organic total shares as of May 11, or about a third of the daily shares of Kim Kardashian’s blog.
Senior Trump aide Jason Miller — himself no stranger to taking humiliating Ls — told CNBC that the site will “not be returning.” He added that it was totally, definitely never intended to be more than “just [an] auxiliary to the broader efforts we have and are working on,” though when CNBC inquired about those broader efforts, Miller said he was “hoping to have more information on the broader efforts soon, but I do not have a precise awareness of timing.”
An anonymous adviser (possibly also Miller, but who knows) was less discerning when speaking to the Washington Post. They admitted Trump felt embarrassed after the launch of his blog failed to garner the attention he so desperately desires. The paper wrote the adviser said, “the former president wanted to open a new ‘platform’ and didn’t like that this platform was being mocked and had so few readers.”
In memoriam, here’s Trump’s last post:
Wow! I hear they have thousands and thousands of boats parading in Jupiter, despite the fact that they tried to cancel us. Everyone is having an incredible time. On this day, we especially appreciate everyone who served and fought for our great Country. I love you all!
A search of Twitter shows it was shared a few dozen times, with the majority of the posts having no likes or retweets. Social URL analytics site SharedCount reports it was shared on Facebook 318 times.
It’s rough out there in the content mines, but he went out like a champ. A champion jackass. Good luck with the Parler account or whatever.