Former US President Donald Trump has returned to X, which he left as Twitter when his account was suspended following the January 6, 2021 election-related riots.
The 45th President shared his first post since returning to the platform at 2:38 am on Friday, and it has become his most liked tweet ever.
The tweet contained Trump’s mugshot from Thursday night’s arrest in Georgia, where he was booked at the Fulton County jail on state charges that he conspired to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in Georgia.
A check by The Herald at 7:30 pm on Friday showed that the tweet had been seen 172 million times and garnered 1,336,334 million likes, the highest on Trump’s verified personal account, which has 86. 9 million followers.
See tweet:
https://t.co/MlIKklPSJT pic.twitter.com/Mcbf2xozsY
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 25, 2023
Before this, the former president’s last tweet was posted on January 8, 2021, and garnered 668,436 likes.
X, formerly known as Twitter, permanently suspended Trump’s account on January 8, 2021.
In a statement put out at the time, the social media platform said it took the decision to suspend the account “due to the risk of further incitement of violence”.
On November 20, 2022, X’s new owner, Elon Musk announced that the suspension on the former president’s account had been lifted.
The reinstatement of the account followed a viral poll conducted by Musk in which he asked tweeps to vote for or against reinstating the account.
Trump said at the time that he might not return to the platform, stating “I don’t see any reason for it”.