Donald Trump: Twitter did me a favour with ban

Mr Trump was banned by Twitter after the Capitol riot

Credit: REUTERS

Donald Trump has hailed Twitter for banning him from its platform, saying the social media giant "did us a favour".

Interviewed by the conservative streaming service, Newsmax, the former president expressed no regret about losing access to the service which he used for 11 years.

Mr Trump’s preferred mode of communication is now to issue press releases, which enable him to express his thoughts in more than 280 characters.

"Frankly, they’re more elegant than tweeting," he said. "I think I’m getting better and more coverage with that than I did with tweeting.

"You do it less, it takes less time. It’s probably a better form and everyone’s waiting for you," he added.

"Tweeting gets you in trouble because you’re retweeting people and you find out that the retweets were not so good."

After several warnings from Twitter, Mr Trump was finally banned from Twitter in the wake of the January 6 Capitol riots due to "the risk of further incitement of violence".

At a stroke, the ban cut him off from an estimated 90 million followers and he was prevented from trying to sidestep the ban by using other accounts.

On Sunday Jason Miller, Mr Trump’s 2020 campaign manager, said the former president would be setting up an alternative social media platform that would "completely redefine the game".

Uncharacteristically, Mr Trump declined to be drawn on his plans.

"We have a lot of options and something will happen with social media if I want it to happen."