Trump shuts down ‘from the desk’ blog after less than a month over low readership and mockery

Donald Trump’s “communications platform” on his campaign website has been removed, with a redesign that eliminates his “From the Desk of Donald J Trump” blog that promised a “place to speak freely and safely” less than a month ago.

The blog “will not be returning,” according to adviser Jason Miller, who suggested that the blog’s removal precedes plans for the former president to join another social media platform after his widespread ban.

All previous entries now are under a “news” link, with entries retitled to “Statement by Donald J Trump, 45th President of the United States”.

Links to entries from donaldjtrump.com/desk display a 404 error, and the link to the main “desk” page shows an entry form to sign up for emails and text messages from Mr Trump’s campaign.

An adviser for Mr Trump told The Washington Post that the former president shuttered the blog over its low readership and widespread mocking on social media.

Mr Trump’s website crashed on Saturday following a message about the ongoing election “audit” in Arizona that included false allegations of voter fraud, including that “seals were broken on the boxes that hold the votes, ballots are missing, and worse”.

The blog’s launch followed the former president’s removal across social media platforms for repeatedly amplifying baseless claims and violating platforms’ rules concerning threats of violence, after his false “stolen election” narrative fuelled a riot at the US Capitol on 6 January.

His blog had fewer than 212,0000 engagements within its first week, and traffic has plunged across his platforms in recent days.

According to an analysis from The Washington Post, Mr Trump’s social media engagement has fallen to its lowest point since the start of his presidential campaign.

The website is part of Save America, a joint fundraising committee supported by political action committee Make America Great Again.

In a post to his website on 24 May that no longer appears to display on the revamped page, Mr Trump said traffic “would be even greater if we were still on Twitter and Facebook, but since Big Tech has illegally banned me, tens of millions of our supporters have stopped using these platforms because they’ve become ‘boring’ and nasty”.

“This is meant to be a temporary way of getting my thoughts and ideas out to the public without the Fake News spin, but the website is not a ‘platform,’” he said. “It is merely a way of communicating until I decide on what the future will be for the choice or establishment of a platform. It will happen soon. Stay tuned!”

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