Outgoing president Donald Trump has been hit with a permanent Twitter ban. (Getty/ Tasos Katopodis)
Donald Trump’s permanent Twitter ban has been set to Lady Gaga’s “Chromatica II” into “911” transition, in a video sure to be “played in history classes in 20 years”.
The lame duck US president’s @RealDonaldTrump account was initially suspended from Twitter on Wednesday (6 January), after the social media platform decided a video he posted praising armed, extremist rioters at the US capitol, describing them as “very special”.
The mob of Trump supporters breached the US Capitol, storming the rotunda and breaking into the Senate chamber to fire tear gas at senators in a bid to overturn the US election result as the Electoral College votes were counted by Congress. Five people were killed during the riots.
But Trump’s video describing the mob as “patriots” prompted Twitter to enforce a 12-hour suspension, the first penalty the leader had faced in his four-year presidency.
The platform was clear that if Trump continued to violate its guidelines, a permanent suspension would follow. Which is exactly what happened.
After being allowed to return to Twitter Friday (8 January), Trump tweeted: “The 75,000,000 great American Patriots who voted for me, AMERICA FIRST, and MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN, will have a GIANT VOICE long into the future. They will not be disrespected or treated unfairly in any way, shape or form!!!”
Shortly afterwards he posted again: “To all of those who have asked, I will not be going to the Inauguration on January 20th.”
His account was then permanently suspended, and Twitter said in a statement: “Our determination is that the two Tweets above are likely to inspire others to replicate the violent acts that took place on 6 January, 2021, and that there are multiple indicators that they are being received and understood as encouragement to do so.”
It said the first tweet was “being interpreted as further indication that President Trump does not plan to facilitate an ‘orderly transition’”, and that “the second Tweet may also serve as encouragement to those potentially considering violent acts that the inauguration would be a ‘safe’ target, as he will not be attending”.
A few hours after his Twitter ban, Trump took to the official @POTUS account to accuse Twitter of going “further and further in banning free speech”, and to say he was considering launching his own social media platform. This tweet was also removed.
Donald Trump’s Twitter ban set to Lady Gaga is branded “absolute perfection”.
In celebration, a Lady Gaga stan account has now set before and after images of Donald Trump’s Twitter to Gaga’s famous “Chromatica II” into “911” transition.
The best one so far! Absolute PERFECTION!! https://t.co/PgTUSo2o5E
— CEO of Gay Leo (TMNT) (@NinjaTurtleGaga) January 9, 2021
One Twitter user insisted that the transition between tracks on her album Chromatica was given to fans by Gaga “specifically for this day”.
They pointed out that the transition takes place between track seven and track 8, while Trump’s suspension took place between 7 and 8 January, adding: “She knew.”
track 7 into 8.
jan 7 into 8.
she knew.— tay-lo ⛅️ (@ayo_its_tayo) January 8, 2021
I hope to GOD this is played in history classes in 20 years https://t.co/f5LBWGJrod
— Kate Carr 🏳️🌈 (@_katecarr) January 9, 2021
Another wrote: “I hope to GOD this is played in history classes in 20 years.”
This week, Lady Gaga called for Trump to be impeached for a second time, saying: “He incited domestic terror — how much more violence needs to happen? This is terrorism.”
I hope we focus to impeach Trump so Congress has the constitutional authority to possibly disqualify him from future election—the #25thAmendment doesn’t disqualify him. He incited domestic terror—how much more violence needs to happen? This is terrorism.
— Lady Gaga (@ladygaga) January 8, 2021
Trump has also been banned from Facebook and Instagram, and Google has suspended the Parler social networking app from its Play Store because of pro-Trump posts inciting violence.