President Trump on Thursday will hold a “Social Media Summit” at the White House, where he will meet prominent online personalities and vent his frustrations with big-tech companies allegedly squelching conservative voices, according to reports.
“The White House will be hosting a very big and very important Social Media Summit today. Would I have become President without Social Media? Yes (probably)!” the president said in the first of a series of tweets.
“A big subject today at the White House Social Media Summit will be the tremendous dishonesty, bias, discrimination and suppression practiced by certain companies. We will not let them get away with it much longer. The Fake News Media will also be there, but for a limited period,” he continued.
“The Fake News is not as important, or as powerful, as Social Media. They have lost tremendous credibility since that day in November, 2016, that I came down the escalator with the person who was to become your future First Lady,” he said.
“When I ultimately leave office in six years, or maybe 10 or 14 (just kidding), they will quickly go out of business for lack of credibility, or approval, from the public. That’s why they will all be Endorsing me at some point, one way or the other,” Trump added.
“Could you imagine having Sleepy Joe Biden, or @AlfredENeuman99, or a very nervous and skinny version of Pocahontas (1000/24th), as your President, rather than what you have now, so great looking and smart, a true Stable Genius! Sorry to say that even Social Media would be driven out of business along with, and finally, the Fake News Media!” he concluded.
Trump has compared South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg, one of the Democratic presidential candidates, to Alfred E. Neuman, Mad magazine’s famous mascot.
The White House has repeatedly declined to release a list of attendees, but some of them have turned to social media to boast about being invited, according to CNN.
Facebook said it had not been invited to the event. Twitter reportedly also has been excluded, but declined to comment to Reuters, as did Reddit. Google did not respond for comment to the news agency.
The White House billed the event as a gathering of “digital leaders” who are expected to address what they perceive as censorship on social media platforms.
Google, Facebook and Twitter have all denied that they censor conservatives.
In a statement to Reuters, the White House described the gathering as a follow-up to an online survey launched by Team Trump in May for people to report “suspected political bias” on social media.
“After receiving thousands of responses, the president wants to engage directly with these digital leaders in a discussion on the power of social media,” White House spokesman Judd Deere told the news outlet.
Pro-Trump Twitter user Carpe Donktum, who was recently suspended over a video depicting Trump as a cowboy attacking CNN correspondent Jim Acosta, said the event could unite online conservatives.
The stay-at-home dad in Kansas told NPR that when he got the email invitation to the White House, he thought it could be spam. He requested that his real name be withheld amid fears of retaliation against his family.
CarpeDonktum’s moniker — a play on the Latin phrase “Carpe diem,” or “Seize the day” — means “Seize the donkey,” referring to Democrats. The president has retweeted several of his pro-Trump images and videos mocking the left.
Conservative talk show host Bill Mitchell, who will attend the summit, blames Twitter’s algorithm for some of his followers not being able to see his posts, according to NPR.
He said he hopes the summit addresses how social media has become the modern public square.
“If you become the public square, you really need to offer First Amendment protections to people,” Mitchell told NPR. “Where everybody can have free and open speech. Let’s have the debate. And may the best man win.”
Trump last year said: “You look at Google, Facebook, Twitter, and other social media giants, and I’ve made it clear that we as a country cannot tolerate political censorship, black listing and rigged search results.”
When Trump, who has more than 61 million Twitter followers, met with the site’s CEO, Jack Dorsey, in April, he asked why he had lost followers, a source told Reuters.
In May, Facebook designated several extremist figures as “dangerous” — including Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, Infowars host Alex Jones, political commentator Milo Yiannopoulos and conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer — and permanently banned them.