Trump anxiously awaits Facebook's decision about restoring his account, which is seen as 'essential for his future political viability'

• Facebook is expected to announce Wednesday whether Donald Trump's account will be reinstated.
• An ally told Axios the social-media platform was "essential" to Trump's political future.
• Trump has hinted at a 2024 presidential campaign, and Facebook is a crucial fundraising tool.

Tuesday could be a sleepless night for former President Donald Trump as he awaits a crucial decision from Facebook over whether he can be replatformed - a move he and his inner circle see as vital to a 2024 presidential campaign, according to a new Axios report.

The social-media platform's independent Oversight Board is expected to announce its decision in the matter Wednesday morning. Facebook indefinitely barred him from the site in January after the insurrection that saw a mob of pro-Trump rioters storm the US Capitol.

People close to the former president told Axios that Trump's access to Facebook would be key to his fundraising and online political strategy should he decide to run for president again in 2024, a move that looks increasingly possible.

"Getting this account back is not only essential for his future political viability," an anonymous Trump source told the outlet. "It would also be an undoing of an unjust act by a social-media company that made an ad hoc ruling to deplatform a sitting president."

Trump's allies acknowledged to Axios that circumstances could change before 2024 and he might ultimately decide not to run. But they also said the former president had missed being at the center of politics.

Following the Capitol riot, Trump was also barred from his seemingly favorite social-media platform, Twitter. But despite his late-night tweet rants and "covfefe"-like Twitter meme machine, it is Facebook, more so than Twitter, that has played a central role in his past campaign strategy.

According to Axios, Trump's team spent nearly $160 million on Facebook ads in 2020, and his network voraciously used the platform to energize supporters in both 2016 and 2020.

Though Trump has publicly minimized the ramifications of his social-media exile, he and his team are especially eager for a Facebook reinstatement as they plot the former president's potential political return.

On Tuesday, Trump announced the launch of a new blog, From the Desk of Donald J. Trump, which appears to offer the former president a Twitter-like platform to spout off short missives.