Donald Trump has been staging a veritable thumb war ever since he was elected as the 45th President of the United States in 2016. I mean, there was the "covfefe" incident, wherein the former Apprentice star and billionaire property mogul took to his favourite social media to perplex the world with the now-infamous 7-character tweet. And it hasn't ended there. Donald Trump's Twitter account has managed to alienate large swathes of people, including a considerable number of women, the LGBTQ community and many South American countries. And as such, last month, a former Twitter employee took it upon himself to shut down the US President's account. While it was only down for 11 minutes, it caused quite the hubbub on the application with people championing the then-unnamed employee as a defender of liberal values. [[twitterwidget||https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/926401530013642765]] But now, it seems as if Trump's bizarre Twitter usage is catching on within his inner circle. After NSA Michael Flynn pled guilty to lying to the FBI in regards to his dealings with a Russian Ambassador, the President's attorney, Ty Cobb, was called in to issue a formal statement to defend his innocence. However, in an unforeseen twist which has completely diverted attention from the matter at hand, Cobb typed the entire statement in Comic Sans. And no, this is not a drill. How do you detract from a collusion investigation? By getting your lawyer to issue a statement typed in the world's least-favourite font, it seems. Bloomberg reporter, Sahil Kapur shared Ty Cobb's rather interesting statement on Twitter, and naturally, all hell broke loose. Cobb wrote: "Today, Michael Flynn, a former National Security Advisor at the White House for 25 days during the Trump Administration, and a former Obama administration official, entered a guilty plea to a single count of making a false statement to the FBI. "The False statements involved mirror the false statements to White House officials which resulted in his resignation in February of this year. Nothing about the guilty plea or the charge implicates anyone other than Mr. Flynn. The conclusion of this phase of the Special Counsel's work demonstrates again that the Special Counsel is moving with all deliberate speed and clears the way for a prompt and reasonable conclusion." But, I mean, who even cares about the content of the statement when it's so offensive to look at? Take a gander at the eyesore below... Twitter users were, of course, outraged by the whole situation. A fellow lawyer wrote, "I’m an attorney and i wouldn’t be caught dead using anything other than times new Roman. Arial is too colloquial for me. Comic sans is malpractice", while a veritable comedian added, "Don't nobody have Times New Roman for that." [[twitterwidget||https://twitter.com/Ayo48/status/936822304830496768]] [[twitterwidget||https://twitter.com/JhonnyTopside/status/936732851193524224]]   Now, whether you believe this was a clever political ploy to detract from the issue at hand, or just an ill-thought-out font choice, one thing is for sure, we need to be paying closer attention to what's actually happening in US government, instead of focusing on innocuous (but admittedly hilarious) incidents like this.

The current President of the United States, Donald Trump, has had his Twitter account permanently banned from the platform "due to the risk of further incitement of violence", the company has said.

Referring specifically to the "@realDonaldTrump account" in a statement posted to Twitter's blog site, the company advised that the account had been permanently suspended.

Credit: PA Images

The statement reads in part:

"After close review of recent Tweets from the @realDonaldTrump account and the context around them — specifically how they are being received and interpreted on and off Twitter — we have permanently suspended the account due to the risk of further incitement of violence. 

"In the context of horrific events this week, we made it clear on Wednesday that additional violations of the Twitter Rules would potentially result in this very course of action. Our public interest framework exists to enable the public to hear from elected officials and world leaders directly. It is built on a principle that the people have a right to hold power to account in the open. 

"However, we made it clear going back years that these accounts are not above our rules entirely and cannot use Twitter to incite violence, among other things. We will continue to be transparent around our policies and their enforcement."

Twitter said its decision followed two tweets posted to the account Friday afternoon that would end up being Trump's last.

The tweets, Twitter said, violated its policy against glorification of violence, and, "these two Tweets must be read in the context of broader events in the country and the ways in which the President's statements can be mobilized by different audiences, including to incite violence, as well as in the context of the pattern of behavior from this account in recent weeks."

Credit: PA Images

The first tweeted cited in the statement reads:

“The 75,000,000 great American Patriots who voted for me, AMERICA FIRST, and MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN, will have a GIANT VOICE long into the future. They will not be disrespected or treated unfairly in any way, shape or form!!!”

The second reads:

“To all of those who have asked, I will not be going to the Inauguration on January 20th.”

You can read the full statement from Twitter here.

Credit: PA Images

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg previously announced that Trump had been banned "indefinitely" from Facebook in a statement issued on Thursday, January 7.

Per the Washington Post, in a post made on Thursday, the Facebook founder stated:

"The shocking events of the last 24 hours clearly demonstrate that President Donald Trump intends to use his remaining time in office to undermine the peaceful and lawful transition of power to his elected successor, Joe Biden.

"His decision to use his platform to condone rather than condemn the actions of his supporters at the Capitol building has rightly disturbed people in the US and around the world.

"We removed these statements yesterday because we judged that their effect - and likely their intent -- would be to provoke further violence.

"Following the certification of the election results by Congress, the priority for the whole country must now be to ensure that the remaining 13 days and the days after inauguration pass peacefully and in accordance with established democratic norms."

Zuckerberg continued:

"Over the last several years, we have allowed President Trump to use our platform consistent with our own rules, at times removing content or labeling his posts when they violate our policies.

"We did this because we believe that the public has a right to the broadest possible access to political speech, even controversial speech.

"But the current context is now fundamentally different, involving use of our platform to incite violent insurrection against a democratically elected government. We believe the risks of allowing the President to continue to use our service during this period are simply too great.

"Therefore, we are extending the block we have placed on his Facebook and Instagram accounts indefinitely and for at least the next two weeks until the peaceful transition of power is complete."

Despite being 71-years-old and the current President of the United States, Donald Trump's reaction to criticism is somewhat reminiscent of a 10-year-old bully who has been chastised in front of his whole class: namely, he doesn't refrain from throwing all the punches, despite being wholly aware that it's only going to land him in deeper trouble. As such, the US President thought it would be a great idea to tweet a racist slur just hours after his Twitter account was reactivated. On Friday, rebellious former Twitter employee took it upon themselves to shut down Donald Trump's account. To commemorate it being down for 11 minutes, Trump decided to refer to the Democrat senator, Elizabeth Warren as "Pocahontas", in reference to her Native American lineage. "I do regret calling her Pocahontas, because I think it’s a tremendous insult to Pocahontas. So to Pocahontas, I would like to apologise to you." Not only was Trump's response incredibly disrespectful and arrogant, but it was also worrying as he had clearly failed to see the ramifications of making such an insensitive, and hurtful comment. Thankfully, the people of the Internet were quick to condemn Trump's use of term on Friday. One user wrote, "That is racist. Fyi. I mean, I get you are racist, but as a learning opportunity for others...", while another corroborated, "Got the racism going early this morning, eh, #Dotard?" [[twitterwidget||https://twitter.com/jgaustin327/status/926427740793864195]] [[twitterwidget||https://twitter.com/eJoelWatts/status/926417643590037504]] Earlier on Friday, Donald Trump's Twitter account was taken down for 11 glorious minutes, prompting people from all over the world to rejoice. However, while people were quick to assume that Trump had finally been suspended from the social media platform, access was quickly restored. Twitter announced that the account was deactivated by one rather rebellious employee who was working their last day at the company. The application issued a response which read, "We have learned that this was done by a Twitter customer-support employee who did this on the employee's last day. We are conducting a full internal review." [[twitterwidget||https://twitter.com/TwitterGov/status/926267806261407744]] [[twitterwidget||https://twitter.com/bristolptd/status/926242250966913025]] Well there you go, Donald Trump was back for 11 minutes and he didn't wait one second before alienating a whole group of people. Some people never change, eh?

Over the weekend, Twitter made the decision to permanently ban President Donald Trump from the platform "due to the risk of further incitement of violence", the company has said.

Referring specifically to the "@realDonaldTrump account" in a statement posted to Twitter's blog site, the company advised that the account had been permanently suspended.

The statement reads in part:

"After close review of recent Tweets from the @realDonaldTrump account and the context around them — specifically how they are being received and interpreted on and off Twitter — we have permanently suspended the account due to the risk of further incitement of violence. 

"In the context of horrific events this week, we made it clear on Wednesday that additional violations of the Twitter Rules would potentially result in this very course of action."

Credit: PA Images

In its statement, Twitter also revealed that no accounts "above our rules entirely" and that Twitter cannot be used "to incite violence, among other things".

In response to the ban, many celebrities have taken to the social media platform themselves to voice their thoughts - and not all of them are happy with the decision (but a lot of them are).

One of Trump's greatest social media sparring partners, Chrissy Teigen, certainly found the whole thing rather funny.

Actress and presenter Jameela Jamila wrote that 2021 is once again "looking up".

Scrubs star Zach Braff mocked the outgoing president with a photo and witty caption.

Borat star Sacha Baron Cohen poignantly typed: "This is the most important moment in the history of social media.

"The world’s largest platforms have banned the world's biggest purveyor of lies, conspiracies and hate.

"To every Facebook and Twitter employee, user and advocate who fought for this--the entire world thanks you!"

Avengers star Mark Ruffalo also thanked Twitter and its employees.

American comedian and actress Leslie Jones wrote: "This is long time coming!! Your turn everybody time to ban this mutha*****".

Star Trek legend George Takei also poked fun at the President.

Glee's Kevin McHale also had shared his thoughts on the issue, writing: "This isn't about censorship or free speech. It's about protecting lives. Trump's words have now directly lead to 5 deaths & an attack on the US Capitol.
"
Twitter/tech companies should always ban anyone who incites & encourages violence - especially when they have a big platform."

Frozen star Josh Gad also shared a joke with his followers.

Author Stephen King said that Twitter's decision "makes him proud to be a Twitterhead".

And many of Trump's biggest critics also relished in the ban:

However, not every famous face was please with Twitter's decision.

Kirstie Alley has condemned the social media giant's ban, posting several tweets on the matter:

Journalist Megyn Kelly also wrote: "If you’re on the right or not woke or want to raise Q’s about the integrity of our electoral system, you’re next."

Let us know what you think of Trump's Twitter ban in the comments section.

During his tenancy as the 45th President of the United States, Donald Trump has come under fire for a whole range of reasons. Right from the beginning, his legitimacy as President was questioned after he lost the popular vote, and, following a number of White House staff disagreements, a host of reactionary executive orders and some dubious claims surrounding "the wall" and travel ban, his approval ratings have been falling ever since. More than anything, though, the thing that seems to cause the most uproar amongst the American people (and, indeed, the rest of us watching from around the world) are the President's inflammatory tweets. As if announcing impromptu bans on trans people in the military and goading Kim Jong Un with insults via social media wasn't already enough of a risky move for Trump, his Twitter account now gone one step further by retweeting three posts from Jayda Fransen. For those who aren't familiar with Fransen, she is the deputy leader of Britain First - a far-right political group based in the UK. The party's platform is primarily based on bigotry and racism, with Britain's Muslim population being the target for many of their attacks - both politically and physically. Fransen is especially vocal about her hatred of Muslims, and frequently shares her views on Twitter. Earlier today, she posted three videos depicting various individuals of Islamic faith committing violent or disrespectful acts and, of course, she used them to demonize an entire race of people. The videos were then retweeted by Trump's Twitter account. Fransen tweeting the videos in order to incite hatred against a group of people is bad enough, but for Donald Trump - the President of a country which is home to over three million Muslims - to host the message on his own platform is just horrifying. In doing so, Trump is essentially validating the stance of an extremist party and publicly supporting the victimization of a group that already faces mass prejudice in the USA. Not to mention the fact that Fransen has actually been criminally convicted of hate crimes before. Just last year, the deputy leader of the party was charged with religiously aggravated harassment against a mother-of-four who was wearing a hijab. Her viewpoints are considered utterly unpalatable by the majority of the British population and one would expect Trump to be conscious of this when spreading her message. The videos are especially troubling at this point in time, as hate crimes against minorities have increased since Trump's election. Sadly, this sort of message coming from the President is only likely to push that number even higher. Calling out individuals for disrespectful or illegal actions is fair enough, but using the actions of one person to justify hatred against millions of others who happen to be a part of the same religion is simply absurd. As President of a country that has huge racial diversity, Donald Trump should be careful about the messages he sends out to his supporters.