Trump lauds Nigeria Twitter ban, says more countries should follow suit

By Michael Hernandez

WASHINGTON (AA) - Former US President Donald Trump congratulated Nigeria on Tuesday for blocking access to Twitter in the country indefinitely, saying more nations should follow suit.

"Congratulations to the country of Nigeria, who just banned Twitter because they banned their President. More COUNTRIES should ban Twitter and Facebook for not allowing free and open speech," Trump said in a statement.

"Who are they to dictate good and evil if they themselves are evil? Perhaps I should have done it while I was President. But [Facebook CEO Mark] Zuckerberg kept calling me and coming to the White House for dinner telling me how great I was. 2024?" he said, hinting at a potential second presidential run.

Nigeria blocked Twitter on Saturday after the microblogging website deleted a tweet from President Muhammadu Buhari in which he threatened secessionists.

The former US president has been banned from Twitter and Facebook since January after he urged his supporters to "stop the steal" and called them "great patriots" in the midst of the Jan. 6 insurrection at the US Capitol.

Four people died that day at the Capitol, and a law enforcement officer died the following day after suffering two strokes. Two other officers present during the riot took their own lives in the aftermath.

Following the social media bans, Trump launched an ill-fated blog called From the Desk of Donald J. Trump, but it failed to gain traction and was shuttered in less than a month.