President Donald Trump is preparing to lean into his fight with Twitter and other social media platforms this week, a Trump adviser said, using his permanent suspension from Twitter as an opportunity to shift the narrative away from the insurrection on Capitol Hill earlier in the week.
While the President was outraged by Twitter banning him on Friday night, some aides have encouraged him to seize on the ban as an opportunity to reignite arguments of anti-conservative bias on social media and to frame the ban as an attack on his supporters.
“This isn’t just about President Trump, but this is literally about the 75 million Americans” who supported him, the adviser said.
Trump and his Republican allies have long accused social media companies of bias against conservatives, often making false allegations that social media platforms secretly “shadow ban” prominent Republicans.
Several conservative lawmakers have already seized on Twitter’s decision to ban the President and suspend other accounts associated with his false claims about the election and incitement to violence. But while a fight with social media companies is likely to help galvanize the Trump base, it is unlikely to shift the conversation away from Trump’s role in inciting the riots on Capitol Hill last week.
Trump is still facing the threat of more resignations from within his administration and Democrats are readying an article of impeachment against the President, with some Republican lawmakers openly considering supporting those efforts.
While the President and his aides would have preferred he not be banned on Twitter, the ban did give him a perfect foil to use as a distraction at a time when he is losing support from Republicans.
“Big Tech and Capitol Hill Democrats seem to have the magic ability to galvanize the Republican base in a way that only they know how to do,” this adviser said.
As CNN has previously reported, Trump is also expected to issue a raft of pardons, travel to the border wall and sign some executive orders in his final days in office. How and when he folds his attacks on social media companies is still being worked out.
This story has been updated with additional details.