Former President Donald Trump posted to Facebook on Friday for the first time since getting booted from the platform in January 2021.
“I’M BACK!” he posted along with a short clip of his remarks after winning the 2016 presidential election. “Sorry to keep you waiting, complicated business. Complicated,” he says in the clip.
Meta lifted its suspension of Trump’s Facebook and Instagram accounts in January, though the president posted to neither until Friday. The former president’s return to Facebook coincides with his ban from YouTube, a platform run by Google, being lifted as well.
Twitter was the first major social media platform to lift its ban on Trump after the former president was suspended from multiple platforms following the January 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol. Twitter CEO Elon Musk reactivated Trump’s Twitter account in November after buying the social media platform last year.
Trump has yet to return to Twitter, which was a staple of his communications prior to being banned in early 2021. Pundits have speculated if and when Trump will make a return to the platform as he campaigns for a 2024 presidential run. Recently, Trump has appeared to be most active on his own social media account, launched in the wake of his suspension from other platforms, Truth Social.
Meta suspended Trump’s accounts after January 6 over “a clear risk of real world harm” being done if the former president had remained on the platforms. Meta let Trump back onto its platforms in January because it judged that “the risk has sufficiently receded,” but the company put “new guardrails in place to deter repeat offenses,” Meta said in a January statement.
“Like any other Facebook or Instagram user, Mr. Trump is subject to our Community Standards,” Meta said. “In light of his violations, he now also faces heightened penalties for repeat offenses — penalties which will apply to other public figures whose accounts are reinstated from suspensions related to civil unrest under our updated protocol. In the event that Mr. Trump posts further violating content, the content will be removed and he will be suspended for between one month and two years, depending on the severity of the violation.”