Prior to Trump’s ban from Meta’s platforms, he used Facebook to spread misinformation and extreme rhetoric. In fact, a previous Media Matters analysis found that a quarter of Trump’s posts on Facebook from January 1, 2020, through his suspension on January 7, 2021, contained COVID-19 misinformation, election lies, or extreme rhetoric about his critics. 

Since Trump was banned from nearly all social media platforms, he has used his own platform, Truth Social, to repeatedly push dangerous election lies, harmful rhetoric, and the QAnon conspiracy theory.

Although Meta has claimed it will restore Trump’s accounts only if “the risk to public safety has receded,” the company seems to be on track to allow the former president back on its platforms despite his ongoing pattern of inflammatory rhetoric. In September, Meta executive Nick Clegg indicated that the company might end Trump’s suspension in January without considering the accuracy of his content. The company also instructed its third party fact-checkers to stop reviewing Trump’s statements, even when they are posted to the platform by others, after he launched his 2024 presidential campaign.

In the week following the 2022 midterm elections, Trump amplified QAnon-related accounts and content 65 times, with 50 of those amplifications (or 77%) on November 14 and 15, the day before and the day of his 2024 campaign announcement.

He amplified numerous posts that contained QAnon imagery, including posts that had the letter “Q” or the QAnon slogans “the storm is coming” and “WWG1WGA."

Trump also pushed false claims of election fraud each day in the week after the election, accounting for a total of 30 posts. He spread baseless claims of “voter fraud,” including promoting falsehoods about mail-in ballots and voting machines.

Nearly 30% of Trump’s posts and reposts (57 out of 197) commented on the 2022 midterms or the upcoming 2024 election. Most of these amplified his 2024 campaign announcement or positive reactions to it; attacked or blamed other Republicans for the party’s poor midterm results; or attacked and downplayed other Republicans’ positive midterm results.

Media Matters compiled a list of posts and reposts from Trump on Truth Social between November 8 and 15, 2022. The resulting lists included 197 posts and reposts. 

Three researchers independently coded each post to note if the main topic of the post was 1) election commentary, 2) pushing claims of election fraud, or 3) amplifying a QAnon-related account or QAnon content. We reviewed each post individually, and each post was given a final code if two of the three researchers independently awarded it the same code. 

Media Matters used the following definitions to determine post topic:

• Election commentary included any posts referencing or alluding to Trump’s 2024 presidential run, his midterm endorsements, the results of the midterms, or other general election commentary that was not focused on election integrity. 
• Election fraud included posts that mentioned or alluded to election fraud during the 2022 midterm elections. These included general references as well as mentions of specific narratives surrounding mail-in ballots or voting machines.
• QAnon amplifications referenced a QAnon phrase or image in the shared or past posts, the user’s profile, or in the poster’s general interactions.