Trump says criminal charges against him are designed to hurt his 2024 presidential election campaign.
Former United States president, Donald Trump, has returned to Twitter over two years after he was banned from the social media platform now known as X.
The 77-year-old posted an image of his mugshot taken on Thursday, August 24, 2023, after he surrendered to authorities in Georgia where he faces criminal charges connected to his efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election result.
The Republican had refused to concede he lost the election to Joe Biden, who’s current president, and alleged fraud in many battleground states.
His combative resistance to the result of the election spurred his supporters to invade the US Capitol on January 6, 2021. The rioters threatened to harm numerous lawmakers, and Trump’s vice president, Mike Pence, who refused to cave in to his demands to scuttle the final ratification of the election result.
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Trump’s actions and posts were deemed to have incited the crowd and ultimately led to his ban on Twitter under the leadership of then-CEO, Jack Dorsey.
Billionaire businessman Elon Musk overturned the ban and restored the ex-president’s account after he bought the company in late 2022, but he had refused to use it, until now.
Trump posted his now-viral Georgia mugshot with captions like “Election Interference” and “Never Surrender” and redirected followers to his website.
Trump faces 13 charges including racketeering and false statements in a bid to subvert the will of the Georgia electorate by meddling in the state’s election results.
He notably had a phone call with Georgia’s Secretary of State, Brad Raffensperger, a fellow Republican, pressuring him to “find 11,780 votes” that would help him win the state over Biden during the ballot count.
The Atlanta judge who set his bail at $200,000 warned that he’s prohibited from intimidating co-defendants and witnesses, including with posts or reposts on social media.
Trump has denied the charges and accused the Democratic Party establishment of a political witch-hunt to hurt his campaign ahead of a potential rematch with Biden at the ballot for the 2024 presidential election.
“The American people know what’s going on. What has taken place is a travesty of justice and election interference.
“The Left wants to intimidate you out of voting for a political outsider who puts the American people first,” he posted on his website on Thursday.
Trump is charged in the Georgia case alongside 18 other people including his lawyers, Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell.
