Former President Trump speaks to the media at Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport after being booked at the Fulton County jail on August 24 in Atlanta, Georgia. Photo: Joe Raedle/Getty Images
Former President Trump on Thursday posted a photo of his Fulton County mug shot on the social media platform formerly known as Twitter – his first post in more than two years.
Why it matters: It's his first post on the platform, now called "X," since Jan. 8, 2021 — and comes just after he surrendered in Georgia for his fourth criminal indictment.
- Elon Musk, who reinstated Trump's account in November, reposted the 2024 presidential candidate's post with the comment "next-level."
Driving the news: Trump in the post included a link to his website and a photo of his mug shot. "Never surrender," he wrote in the caption under the post.
- Trump surrendered to Fulton County authorities about two hours earlier on Thursday on Georgia criminal charges relating to his alleged efforts to subvert 2020 election results.
The big picture: The social media platform banned Trump's account after the Jan. 6 Capitol riot in response to the "risk of further incitement of violence," it said at the time.
- Musk, who took over the platform in October 2022, reinstated Trump's account after posting a poll and millions of accounts voted in favor of reinstating the ex-president's account.
The platform was Trump's primary communication tool when he was running for president and while in office — so much so that some of the posts have been the subject of his legal troubles.
- In the Georgia indictment, his tweets uses as the play-by-play to the alleged conspiracy: 12 of the 161 acts were simply citing Trump statements made on Twitter.
Zoom out: After his ban, Trump launched a social media platform similar to Twitter called Truth Social, but it failed to gain traction. He has a fraction of the followers on that platform as he has on his "X" account.
- Trump said last year that he would not return to the platform and instead continue using Truth Social after the company agreed to be acquired by Musk.
- But people close to his team had thought he'd eventually get back on as a way to drown out negative news such as an indictment.
- Trump, the polling frontrunner in the contest for the Republican presidential nomination, faces 91 criminal counts in four different jurisdictions.
Go deeper: The tweets haunting Trump
Editor's note: This article has been updated with comment from Elon Musk.