Twitter Suspends Trump’s Account After Jan. 8 Review

Twitter permanently suspended Donald Trump’s @realDonaldTrump account on January 8, 2021, after reviewing his recent tweets and the context around them. The company said the decision followed a close review of the account’s recent posts and how they were being received and interpreted on and off the platform. Twitter said those posts violated its rules and created a risk of further incitement of violence. The suspension came two days after Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol on January 6, and after Twitter had already locked his account temporarily for 12 hours following earlier enforcement actions. In its statement, the company said it had warned on Wednesday that additional violations could lead to permanent action. By Friday, Twitter said the threshold had been crossed. The Jan. 8 tweets at the center of the decision were posted after the Capitol attack and before the suspension took effect. One message praised his supporters as “great American Patriots” and said they would “have a GIANT VOICE long into the future.” Another said he would not attend the inauguration on January 20. Twitter said it assessed those posts under its glorification-of-violence policy and concluded they were likely to encourage and inspire others to replicate the violence at the Capitol. The move cut off one of Trump’s most direct channels to the public during the final days of his presidency. It also marked a rare permanent suspension of a sitting president’s account, underscoring how aggressively the platform said it was willing to enforce its rules after the Capitol attack. The decision was not framed as a broad political judgment; Twitter said it was a policy action based on the posts, the surrounding events, and the risk those messages could be understood as further encouragement to violence.