Donald Trump Returns To Twitter To Post Mugshot

Tom Jowitt,
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Former US President Donald Trump makes unexpected return to X (formerly Twitter) after his ban from platform

Former US President Donald Trump has posted his historic mugshot on X (formerly known as Twitter).

It was his first tweet on the platform since January 2021, after he was banned from Twitter following the 6 January US Capitol insurrection by a pro Trump mob, in which seven people lost their lives.

Since that time Trump has been using his own social networking platform, Truth Social, to promote his agenda. Trump had approximately 5.71 million followers on Truth Social, compared to more than 88 million on Twitter before his suspension.

Historic Mugshot

At the Fulton County jail on Thursday evening, Trump was booked on 13 charges due to his efforts to reverse Georgia’s 2020 election results – charges that include racketeering, conspiracy, and soliciting a public official to violate their oath of office.

Trump was placed under arrest, fingerprinted, and his height, weight and hair colour were recorded, and as part of the process, he was given a prisoner identification number: P01135809.

He was then released on payment of 10 percent of his $200,000 bail, having spent just 20 minutes inside the infamous facility.

It was the fourth time that Trump has been arrested this year.

However during his previous arrests in New York City, Miami and Washington, DC, his mugshot (booking photo) was not taken.

Trump is the first former president in history to have a mugshot taken, and was pictured scowling inside Fulton County jail, before he shared the image on X.

Trump then returned to the local airport and declared on the Tarmac that it was “a very sad day for America.”

He said it was “a travesty of justice” and added: “We did nothing wrong, I did nothing wrong,” before boarding a flight back to his New Jersey home.

Twitter ban

Trump was banned on almost all social networking platforms for his role in inciting a mob of his supporters to storm the US Capitol building on Wednesday 6 January 2021, which resulted in the deaths of seven people (including one police officer who was beaten to death).

In the immediate aftermath, Facebook banned Trump for 24 hours, but as the full scale of the attempted insurrection became clear, it then suspended his accounts for two years, until 7 January 2023, after which the company said it would review his suspension.

YouTube and Twitter also initially banned Trump for a limited period of time, but YouTube then suspended Trump’s account indefinitely.

Twitter also opted to permanently ban Trump from its platform.

During his ban on mainstream social networking platform, Trump rallied against the firms, and attempted a court challenge to his ban on Twitter, which failed.

Trump also filed a separate lawsuit against Twitter, Facebook and Google, as well as their then respective CEOs Jack Dorsey, Mark Zuckerberg, and Sundar Pichai.

But his lawsuit against Twitter was dismissed by a US court.

As Trump tried and failed to restore his online presence, he resorted to DIY approaches. After leaving office Trump launched a website to publish content ‘straight from the desk’ of the former president.

But after only one month of operation, Trump closed down that website.

Then in February 2022, Trump launched his much touted ‘Truth Social’ media venture.

In November 2022, Twitter’s new owner Elon Musk reinstated Trump’s account.