Bully’s lost his pulpit

Twitter bans prez

Twitter on Friday took the unprecedented step of banning President Trump’s world-famous account from the platform “permanently” — less than two weeks before he leaves office.

The president reacted with his usual bluster.

“We will not be SILENCED!” he said — resorting to an old-fashioned press release to get his statement out.

“Twitter is not about FREE SPEECH,” he wrote.

“They are all about promoting a Radical Left Platform where some of the most vicious people in the world are allowed to speak freely.”

Earlier, Twitter issued a statement at about 6 p.m.:

“After close review of recent Tweets from the @realDonaldTrump account and the context around them — specifically how they are being received and interpreted on and off Twitter — we have permanently suspended the account due to the risk of further incitement of violence.”

The decision comes after Wednesday’s US Capitol siege in which five people were killed when thousands of pro-Trump supporters stormed Congress.

In explaining its decision, Twitter revealed, “Plans for future armed protests have already begun proliferating on and off Twitter, including a proposed secondary attack on the US Capitol and state capitol buildings on January 17, 2021.

“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.

“Our public interest framework exists to enable the public to hear from elected officials and world leaders directly. It is built on a principle that the people have a right to hold power to account in the open.

“However, we made it clear going back years that these accounts are not above our rules entirely and cannot use Twitter to incite violence, among other things. We will continue to be transparent around our policies and their enforcement.”

The commander in chief started this year with 88.6 million followers and 59,400 total tweets — many of those announcing the firing of White House personnel and other diplomacy moves.

Members of the president’s team also fired back.

“Disgusting. Big Tech wants to cancel all 75M @realDonaldTrump supporters,” wrote Trump campaign senior adviser Jason Miller. “If you don’t think they’re coming for you next, you’re wrong.”

On Thursday, Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg had announced he had banned Trump from the platform until the end of his term, saying the president had used the platform to “condone rather than condemn the actions of his supporters.”