Trump couldn't even run a blog


The death of former President Donald Trump's blog was announced Wednesday, less than a month into its life. It "will not be returning," a Trump aide confirmed, claiming the blog was "just auxiliary to the broader efforts we have and are working on."
If you say so, bud.
Look, blogs are not difficult to create and maintain. I've done it. Probably most people under 40 in this country have made some attempt at blogging, using a simple, readymade platform like Wordpress, Tumblr (RIP), Xanga, Blogger, whatever. It's not that complicated.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
But, apparently, it's too complicated for Trump and his entire team. As The Week's Jeva Lange noted when the site debuted last month, parts of the blog's very basic functionality were broken from the beginning, and Trump's content, unbound by the character limits of Twitter, was not compelling. It was whiny, deceptive, and rather pathetic.
The strangest thing to my mind, however, was the blog's total lack of means for reader engagement. There was no comments section. There was no way for visitors to reply or interact at all, undoubtedly one reason the site's traffic was quite low by hyper-polarizing ex-president standards. (Trump reportedly "didn't like that [the site] was being mocked" for its unpopularity, per an unnamed Washington Post source.) Trump's team at least could have hitched commenting access to $5 recurring monthly donations to his campaign, which would have weeded out trolls and given it an air of exclusivity.
Evidently, no one among Trump's advisers — let alone the man himself — hit upon any of this. They launched a sad, one-way "communications platform," and now they've killed it. This is the sort of thing that gives me real pause about the prospect of Trump running for president again in 2024, especially successfully.
The blog failure is a small thing on its own, I suppose, but in the context of the last five years, it's further confirmation of the former president's incompetence, bad character, and poor hiring and management choices. He is an excellent salesman for a certain audience, but there's no discipline or substance behind the rhetoric.
I don't doubt Trump wants to win the presidency again, but if you can't run a blog, can you really run a campaign? Or a country?
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.
-
'The program long ago ceased to be temporary help'
Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
-
Denmark to grill US envoy on Greenland spying report
speed read The Trump administration ramped up spying on Greenland, says reporting by The Wall Street Journal
-
Rust: Alec Baldwin's 'ghoulish' western haunted by real-life death
Talking Point The film's only saving grace is the late Halyna Hutchins's 'gorgeous' cinematography
-
Denmark to grill US envoy on Greenland spying report
speed read The Trump administration ramped up spying on Greenland, says reporting by The Wall Street Journal
-
Carney and Trump come face-to-face as bilateral tensions mount
IN THE SPOTLIGHT For his first sit-down with an unpredictable frenemy, the Canadian prime minister elected on a wave of anti-Trump sentiment tried for an awkward detente
-
Another messaging app used by the White House is in hot water
The Explainer TeleMessage was seen being used by former National Security Adviser Mike Waltz
-
How does the Alien Enemies Act work?
Feature President Trump is using a long-dormant law to deport Venezuelans. How does it work?
-
Baby bonus: Can Trump boost the birth rate?
Feature The Trump administration is encouraging Americans to have more babies while also cutting funding for maternal and postpartum care
-
Hollywood confounded by Trump's film tariff idea
speed read President Trump proposed a '100% tariff' on movies 'produced in foreign lands'
-
Trump offers migrants $1,000 to 'self-deport'
speed read The Department of Homeland Security says undocumented immigrants can leave the US in a more 'dignified way'
-
Deportations ensnare migrant families, U.S. citizens
Feature Trump's deportation crackdown is sweeping up more than just immigrants as ICE targets citizens, judges and nursing mothers