Trump reportedly deleted his blog because he was upset people were mocking it and it had such a small audience
- Trump deleted his blog because he didn't like it being mocked, The Washington Post reported.
- His team originally billed it as a social-media platform that would rival Twitter and Facebook.
- But the blog ultimately had very little engagement and a shelf life of less than a month.
Donald Trump was upset because his blog had very little engagement and was widely mocked by the public, an advisor to the former president told The Washington Post.
The individual spoke on the condition of anonymity to candidly discuss Trump's plans, The Post said.
Wednesday's revelation comes after the senior Trump aide Jason Miller told CNBC that Trump had permanently shut down his blog, which was launched on May 5. The former president largely used the blog, called "From the Desk of Donald J. Trump," as he'd used Twitter, blasting out short, strongly worded statements praising those who were loyal to him, attacking Republicans who he felt had betrayed him, and spreading lies about the 2020 election and post-election audits.
Trump announced plans to launch a new "platform" after he was banned from all mainstream social media following the deadly Capitol insurrection on January 6.
His team billed the site as a social-media giant that would rival the likes of Twitter and Facebook.
"I do think we're going to see President Trump returning to social media in probably about two or three months here with his own platform," Miller said on Fox News' "Media Buzz" in March. "This is something that I think will be the hottest ticket in social media."
"It's going to completely redefine the game, and everybody is going to be waiting and watching to see what exactly President Trump does, but it will be his own platform," he added.
But an NBC News analysis found that Trump's blog had a much smaller audience than his Twitter and Facebook accounts and that there was little engagement with the posts. NBC reported that in the week after Trump launched his blog, it drew a little more than 212,000 engagements, compared to the hundreds of thousands of likes and retweets a single tweet from the former president sometimes accrued.
Miller on Wednesday told CNBC that the blog "will not be returning," and added, "It was just auxiliary to the broader efforts we have and are working on."
Trump's former blog now redirects to www.donaldjtrump.com/alerts. The page prompts users to sign up for "EXCLUSIVE updates" from the ex-president.