FORMER US President Donald Trump has shut down his new blog From The Desk of Donald Trump less than a month after it was first launched.
The "communications platform" was viewed by many as an attempt by Trump to circumvent the social media bans handed down in the wake of the Capital riots last January.
Trump has been permanently banned from Twitter, even if he does decide to run for President again, while Facebook extended his ban for a further six months back in May.
From The Desk of Donald Trump may have been primarily a blog but it allowed users to share posts on both Facebook and Twitter.
Billed as a place where the former President could “speak freely and safely”, according to an unnamed advisor speaking to the Washington Post, Trump decided to shut the platform down after several posts came in for ridicule from the media.
Visitor numbers were also reportedly much lower than Trump had anticipated.
According to the ex-President’s aide, Jason Miller, there are no plans to restart the blog, which was only viewed as a temporary solution ahead of a moved to an as yet undisclosed new social media platform.
"It was just auxiliary to the broader efforts we have and are working on," Miller told Reuters in an email.
There had previously been reports that Trump was planning to launch his own social media platform, though no details have yet been disclosed.
Miller said: "I'm hoping to have more information on the broader efforts soon, but I do not have a precise awareness of timing.”
GettyTrump was hit with a series of social media bans following the January 6 riots in Washington DC in which five people died.
Twitter opted to permanently ban Trump for his role in the violence, locking him out of an account with more than 88 million followers.
Facebook stopped short of a permanent ban with the company’s independent oversight board deciding back in May to review the situation in six months and determine whether to kick him off the site entirely.
