Twitter will not allow Trump to rejoin the social network even if he runs for political office again, confirming that the ban is permanent regardless of his political ambitions and the verdict in his second impeachment trial.
“The way our policies work, when you’re removed from the platform, you’re removed from the platform,” Twitter’s chief financial officer, Ned Segal, said in an interview Wednesday on CNBC. “Remember, our policies are designed to make sure that people are not inciting violence, and if anybody does that, we have to remove them from the service, and our policies don’t allow people to come back.”
Last month, Twitter took its most aggressive action against President Donald Trump, permanently suspending his account following the deadly siege of the Capitol “due to the risk of further incitement of violence,” the company said.
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Twitter stated in January that Trump’s ban would be lifelong, but the issue has drawn renewed attention as the Senate began its impeachment trial, with Trump accused of inciting an insurrection. House impeachment managers have presented Trump’s tweets to bolster their case that his conduct led to the mob violence Jan. 6.
While Trump’s presidency has already ended, and Congress can no longer remove him from office, the Senate could convict him and vote to bar him from running again. If he is acquitted, however, Trump would be free to seek another four years in the White House or any other federal office, which prompted the question of Twitter potentially reinstating his account.
To hammer home the message that Trump won’t be coming back to Twitter, the company’s official communications account retweeted a post from Dictionary.com, linking to the definition for the word “permanent”: “existing perpetually; everlasting, especially without significant change.”