The US’s president Donald Trump has become the butt of jokes of recent.
This may not be unrelated with the happenings at the wake of the 2020 US’s presidential elections.
- ‘Nigeria needs N1.5tr yearly to improve renewable energy access’
- Troops kill 64 terrorists in land operations, several more in air strikes
From ‘unsubstantiated’ claims of votes rigging to the ‘alleged’ incitement to violence at the US’s Capitol, Trump looms larger than life as America’s politics continues to face existential problems.
Below are three major things that happened to Donald Trump in the last two weeks:
Trump impeached for a second time
As if an epilogue to the Facebook and Twitter’s ban on the super power’s president was not enough, on Wednesday the House of Representatives came with yet another swoop.
After an emotional day-long debate and in reference to the insurrection in the US’s Capitol, the House impeached Trump for inciting violence against the government of the US.
Following an ‘inciting message’ he had twitted, a mob of his supporters stormed the US’s Capitol, chased away the lawmakers, posed for photographs and vandalized government’s property.
The recent decision taken by the US’s House of Representatives has made Trump the only American president to be charged twice with committing high ‘crimes’ and ‘misdemeanors’.
Facebook bans Trump
In the same passion as the mainstream “online world’s” efforts to limit Mr Trump for inactivity, on January 7, 2020, Facebook made the announcement of blocking the president for at least two weeks.
According to the CEO, the decision, although hard, was necessary because of the US’s president’s efforts to incite violence in the Capitol.
The ban, which was earlier for 24 hours was extended because Trump was unrelenting in his ‘incitement’ efforts.
Zuckerberg wrote on his Facebook page: “We believe the risks of allowing the President to continue to use our service during this period are simply too great,” he wrote.
“Therefore, we are extending the block we have placed on his Facebook and Instagram accounts indefinitely and for at least the next two weeks until the peaceful transition of power is complete.”
On Friday January 8, 2021 Twitter announced the suspension of President Trump from its platform.
The company said: “After close review of recent Tweets from the @realDonaldTrump account and the context around them we have permanently suspended the account due to the risk of further incitement of violence,” Twitter said.
“In the context of horrific events this week, we made it clear on Wednesday that additional violations of the Twitter Rules would potentially result in this very course of action.”
Two twits by Trump, urging his supporters to “march on and claim what is theirs” and his decision to not attend Biden’s inauguration, had violated the company’s policy against “glorification of violence”.
Twitter said: the “President’s statements can be mobilized by different audiences, including to incite violence, as well as in the context of the pattern of behavior from this account in recent weeks.”
These three difficult decisions have continued to raise concerns as well.
It is now six days to Biden’s inauguration; and the world will surely be on the watch out as the US’s political atmosphere thickens.