Twitter does not host archived tweets from Trump’s personal account

Twitter will not host archived tweets from former President Donald Trump. Following the permanent ban on the 45th president by the social network in January, the content of the @realDonaldTrump account will not appear in archived posts.

Traditionally, institutional accounts like @WhiteHouse, @POTUS, @VP, and @PressSec are held by the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) before online credentials are transferred to the inbound administration. Trump, however, governed largely from his personal account, which NARA says will be available for download from the Donald J. Trump Presidential Library site “as soon as possible”. However, it will not be hosted on Twitter, where users can still read, retweet, like and interact with posts from other former officials.

“I can confirm that our teams have worked with NARA on preserving @realDonaldTrump’s tweets, as is the norm for any administrative transition and as we have done previously,” a Twitter spokesperson said in a statement. This partnership, however, does not go beyond simple compliance with the law.

“Because we have permanently suspended @realDonaldTrump, account content will not appear on Twitter as it previously did or as archived administration accounts currently do, regardless of how NARA decides to. ‘display the data it has kept,’ the company continued. “The administration accounts that are archived on the service are accounts that did not violate Twitter rules.”

The National Archives did not immediately respond to PCMag’s request for comment. But a spokesperson says Politico he is still “exploring the best way” to make Trump’s content public.

“Twitter is solely responsible for deciding what content is available on its platform,” the agency said. “Ultimately, platform owners can opt out of hosting these accounts. NARA maintains platform independent copies of social media records and strives to make such content available to the public.”

All @realDonaldTrump tweets forwarded to the department will be included, along with blocked and deleted posts. There is currently no official record of the more than 26,000 tweets issued by the former commander-in-chief during his tenure, according to Politico.