'Dopey' Jared Kushner doesn't let Trump use Gab, angry CEO Andrew Torba squashes rumors ex-POTUS is on app
Andrew Torba, CEO of the new favorite social media platform for the conservatives called Gab, clarified rumors circulating Donald Trump. Word was that the former president was secretly using the account set up in Torba's name on Gab to post messages after being banned from other platforms such as Twitter and Facebook. Torba took to his own platform on Sunday, February 7, to write a blistering rebuke of the rumor and also explained who was behind it. The CEO also revealed why he thinks Trump has remained off social media since he left the White House.
"@realdonaldtrump is and always has been a mirror archive of POTUS’ tweets and statements that we’ve run for years. We’ve always been transparent about this and would obviously let people know if the President starts using it. The only reason he’s not using it right now to contact his base is because dopey advisers like Jared Kushner, who lost him the election, are blocking him from using it," he wrote in a message on Gab.
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Gab restores and uploads all of Donald Trump's tweets, sees over 700% jump in traffic in 24 hours
He added: "A fake news story was started by random British newspapers that didn’t even bother calling us to fact check or for comment. We will be writing a blog post to expose this fake news shortly. We will go on the record stating that we know 100% for a fact that Jared Kushner is actively trying to keep Trump off Gab and has been for weeks. Because Gab is the only safe place left for conservatives that means Kushner is trying to keep Trump off the Internet."
Last week, The Sun reported that Trump's account on Gab, which has amassed more than 1.3M followers, posted its first update in weeks — sharing a statement from Trump's office to Democratic Congressman Jamie Raskin that was signed by his lawyers. Trump's legal team was responding to Democrats' request that the former president testify under oath in his impeachment trial next week. "Your letter only confirms what is known to everyone: you cannot prove your allegations against the 45th President of the United States, who is now a private citizen," Trump's lawyers said in the statement, garnering over 47,000 likes and 11,000 reposts on Gab.
In fact, the account that was believed to belong to the former president is not his. Confusion arose from the presence of a blue checkmark, indicating that the account was verified. The account in question came into existence after Torba took it upon himself to recreate Trump's entire list of tweets on Gab last month. He apparently backed up Trump’s Twitter account before it was deleted and restored the same on his company's platform. Soon, the site saw its traffic increase by 700% and was being subjected to relentless attacks by liberals.
Around the same time, CNN reported that Kushner had stopped Trump from joining Parler and Gab in the days leading up to his exit from office after he was banned from Twitter and other platforms. While Trump's chief of personnel Johnny McEntee was all for his boss to join the conservative mediums, Kushner and then-POTUS' deputy chief of staff Dan Scavino were dead set against the idea, according to an outside adviser and an administration official.