Trump’s return to social media may help him reach more people, but it could actually harm him by highlighting his volatility, especially when compared to the more laid back Ron DeSantis.

  • Trump will soon be allowed access to all the major social media platforms he was previously blocked from.
  • But his supporters often complained that they wished he’d put off the phone more.
  • If Trump starts posting like he used to, it could push more Republicans towards DeSantis.

More than two years after the attack on the Capitol, former President Donald Trump will soon have access to all the major social media platforms he was banned from, but a return to Facebook or Twitter could ultimately hurt his chances of returning to the presidency in 2024. .

“You can say that Trump will benefit if he comes back because his voice will be heard louder,” Alison Dagnes, a professor of political science at Shippensburg University and political media expert, told Insider. “But doesn’t he lose when his voice is heard louder?”

After being banned from Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, Trump founded Truth Social last year and has been posting exclusively on it ever since, even after Twitter reinstated his account in November after being taken over by Elon Musk.

Rolling Stone reported this week that Trump may be planning to return to Twitter after his exclusive deal with Truth, which requires him to post on the platform first and wait six hours before posting on another platform, will extended in June. And on Wednesday, Meta announced it would allow Trump to return to its platforms, including Facebook and Instagram.

Whether Trump will return to Facebook or Twitter is still unclear, but his use of social media has always been divisive, even among his own supporters. There are countless lists of Trump’s most “outrageous” or “offensive” tweets. While some were amused by this unpredictability, many Trump fans would say they just wished he would stop tweeting.

Dagnes said that when people don’t see Trump’s social media posts, they may forget how shocking and horrifying he can be, but Trump’s return to those platforms may remind them of that. She added that while his social media behavior seemed to work for him in 2016 — Trump himself even suggested he wouldn’t have been elected without Twitter — it’s unlikely to be the same this time around.

“There is an attrition factor,” Dagnes said. “It was new once, but you can’t be new again.”

She said Trump tapped into deep-rooted anger among conservatives, but now there are many lawmakers and right-wing media outlets exploiting that anger. Republicans who have been turned off by Trump’s approach have other options to turn to and are less likely to accept what they don’t like about him.

“Trump in 2016, in my opinion, gave vent to the feelings that people had because they were silent,” she said. “And now that you don’t have to be silent, it could affect politics in the dominant Republican states.”

One of the most notable examples is another potential 2024 nominee: Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. Dagnes said she thinks DeSantis’ star rose so quickly in the Republican Party because he caught the anger Trump used and ran political with it.

Unlike Trump, DeSantis rarely, if ever, makes headlines with what he tweeted. He’s not unpredictable on social media, and many of his supporters aren’t urging him to put down his phone. However, he has adopted policies that directly address issues that concern many Republicans.

He supported and signed a bill to ban discussion of sexual orientation and gender identity in classrooms. In response to illegal immigration, he spent taxpayer dollars to bring migrants to Martha’s Vineyard. And his administration banned “critical race theory” from schools as well as AP African American Studies courses.

In essence, DeSantis has faced the same grievances as Trump, but he does so through politics, not constant tweets. And if Trump were to return to posting on Facebook and Twitter, he could remind some conservatives that they can have a lot of what they like about him, but without the tweets – with DeSantis.

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