Donald Trump’s blog lasted for almost 3 Scaramuccis

Analysis by Chris Cillizza, CNN Editor-at-large

What a magical run!

For 29 days, ex-President Donald Trump revolutionized digital communication with — checks notes — a blog where he occasionally would post his, er, thoughts about the news of the day.

That revolution ended on Wednesday with the news, first reported by CNBC and later confirmed by CNN, that “From the Desk of Donald J. Trump” (points for creativity in the name — not) was shutting down permanently.

To put the life of “From the Desk of Donald J. Trump” in the most Trumpian terms possible, it lasted roughly three Scaramuccis. (A Scaramucci, for the uninitiated, is 10 days, the full tenure of Anthony Scaramucci as then-President Trump’s communications director.)

Which a pretty dang short period of time for the blog that was initially billed by Fox News as a “communications platform” that came to life “after advisers had told Fox News that the former President planned to ‘move forward’ to create a social media platform of his own after being banned from Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, and Snapchat after the Capitol riot.”

(It’s worth noting here that Trump senior adviser Jason Miller sought to downplay the launch of the site even at the time; “President Trump’s website is a great resource to find his latest statements and highlights from his first term in office, but this is not a new social media platform,” he told Fox.)

While Miller insisted on Wednesday that this shuttering was all part of the plan — “It was just auxiliary to the broader efforts we have and are working on,” he told CNN — it’s hard to see why the former President and his team would launch his blog less than a month ago only to suddenly get rid of it.

The most likely scenario is that Trump was desperate to have some sort of post-presidential forum on which to opine. (He has been banned from Twitter and Facebook since shortly after the January 6 insurrection at the US Capitol; Facebook’s oversight board upheld Trump’s suspension in early May.) And so, his advisers set something up for him, which turned out to be “From the Desk of Donald J. Trump.”

But much like www.creedthoughts.gov.wwwcreedthoughts, the blog never got much pickup. Sure, when Trump would say something outlandish, it would get tweeted around. But the former President’s ability to move news cycles with the power of his keyboard was (and is) greatly reduced. Without the power of the White House and the presidency behind him, Trump was (and is) another former politician blasting out his thoughts to the Internet.

And then there’s this: Trump loved the immediate feedback (and affirmation) he got from Twitter and Facebook. Within seconds of posting, he would be rolling up retweets and likes. “From the Desk of Donald J. Trump” offered none of that; you couldn’t even leave a comment on one of his many rants statements.

And so, before I even bothered to bookmark this revolutionary, um, blog, it’s gone. Too soon?