Following the 2020 elections and the January 6 insurrection, former President Donald Trump was barred from most social media platforms, most notably Twitter. With most right-wing Americans already switching to the Parler app, a new book revealed that the former president’s reps told the platform that Trump was willing to be an active member if his critics are suspended.
According to the book “Landslide: The Final Days of the Trump Presidency,” by Michael Wolff, representatives of the former president approached Parler when Trump was still in office and proposed that Trump would join Parler when he left the White House. In their proposal, Trump would receive a 40 percent cut of the platform’s gross revenues, and Parler would suspend or ban any user that criticized Trump. Parler ultimately refused at the last condition.
Parler became popular among Trump supporters, including his allies, around the time the Capitol riots occurred as it did not moderate content. Wolff wrote that according to Trump’s representatives, most of his social media presence would be there.
According to a court filing by former Parler CEO John Matze, Trump was supposed to join the platform under the pseudonym of Person X. However, Matze said as Amazon Web Services knew about this plan, Parler’s contract was terminated, essentially putting the site offline. This was in part to prevent Trump from having any presence on social media after the riots, according to Matze.
At the time, Amazon said that their reason for terminating their contract with Parler was due to the platform’s inability to identify and remove content that would encourage or incite violence. Apple and Google have also since removed Parler from their app stores. Parler eventually returned with a new web host and a new CEO.
Meanwhile, first lady Dr. Jill Biden made a swipe at the former president in her recent interview with Vogue magazine. Dr. Biden graced the cover of the fashion magazine following her other Democratic predecessors Michelle Obama and Hillary Clinton. Without mentioning Trump by name, Dr. Biden talked about her husband Joe Biden’s leadership since taking office, saying that “people can breathe again” since he was elected president.
“During the campaign, I felt so much anxiety from people; they were scared,” said the first lady. “When I travel around the country now, I feel as though people can breathe again. I think that’s part of the reason Joe was elected. People wanted someone to come in and heal this nation, not just from the pandemic, which I feel Joe did by, you know, getting shots in everybody’s arms. But also…he’s just a calmer president. He lowers the temperature.”