National Post (National Edition)
It's really lonely at the top now
THEY ARE PLAINLY PARTISAN. THEY BAN IN ONE DIRECTION ONLY. — REX MURPHY
If you were a famously thin-skinned president tormented with fear of being identified as a loser, what would hurt you more: your neighbours disliking you, your minions abandoning you, your allies forsaking you, your country firing you or someone taking away your golf tournament?
Donald Trump faces all those humiliations and more. His banishment from social media, with virtually every platform you care to mention banning or suspending him, silences the online voice that connected him directly to a horde of rabid supporters, with their Confederate flags and MAGA hats.
He's barely got a friend left in the world. His vice-president is livid. His attorney general quit. His cabinet is disgusted. Few of his fellow leaders on the international front liked him much anyway. He called Justin Trudeau “very dishonest and weak” after the prime minister hosted a Group of Seven summit. He shoved the prime minister of Montenegro out of the way in a photo op at a NATO gathering, got in a handshake duel with the president of France, and was mocked by fellow leaders at a reception at Buckingham Palace.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and German Chancellor Angela Merkel directly blame Trump for the assault on the U.S. Capitol. Former California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, born in postwar Austria while it was still under Allied occupation, likened shattered windows at Wednesday's riot to the 1938 Nazi assault on Jewish shops.
The barrage of censure at home has been sweeping and intense. Democrats are pledging a second impeachment, and members of his own party are demanding he resign. Rupert Murdoch, whose Wall Street Journal liked his policies if not his behaviour, disowned him, the Murdoch-owned Post demanding in jumbo headlines that he “stop the insanity.” He's enraged at Fox News for insufficient fealty. His neighbours at Mar-a-Lago have started legal action to make him move elsewhere, citing a 1993 agreement identifying the property as a social club and not a permanent residence.
Even professional golf has had enough, voting Sunday to remove its annual championship from Trump's course in Bedminster, N.J. It's a stinging rebuke from a sport Trump loves and considers a source of prestige. That a sport often identified with wealthy men playing on private courses, a bastion of conservative values, now sees Trump as a threat to “our brand and reputation” is a direct and damning repudiation of a man who craves its respect.
More than anything, however, Trump has to feel the sting of having his social media larynx removed. The list of platforms that no longer want his presence ranges from Twitter and Facebook to more unlikely outlets like Shopify and Snapchat. The president's Twitter following totalled more than 88 million and was his main means of stoking the anger of his most devoted followers. The lifetime ban announced Friday shuts off a pipeline Trump filled with a never-ending flood of insults and vitriol, enabling him to reach over the heads of critics and Congress alike, straight into the hearts of Americans susceptible to his world of acid, falsehoods and conspiracies.
The tech giants reasoning for their action sounded better suited to a Mafia boss than the leader of the free world. Shopify took down two online stores peddling Trumpware, noting it “does not tolerate actions that invite violence.” Reddit said its policies “prohibit content that promotes hate, or encourages, glorifies, incites, or calls for violence against groups of people or individuals.”
Twitch condemned Trump's “incendiary rhetoric,” while Facebook and Instagram blocked access until after Trump leaves office, noting “We believe the risks of allowing the president to continue to use our service during this period are simply too great.”
Pinterest indicated Trump doesn't have an account, but nonetheless felt compelled to proclaim it “isn't a place for threats, promotion of violence or hateful content.” Amazon, Apple and Google all expunged Parler, a popular site with Trumpites. Amazon said it had 98 examples of Parler posts “that clearly encourage and incite violence.”
How Trump takes it is anybody's guess. Though someone convinced him to make a video pledging a “peaceful and orderly transition,” he later reportedly regretted it. He says he won't be at President-elect Joe Biden's inauguration. Maybe he can still find three people willing to make a golf foursome with him. But he won't be boasting about it on Twitter.