Trump’s Lawyers Compare Him to Galileo in New Filing
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Galileo was persecuted for daring to claim that the Earth revolved around the sun. Nearly 400 years later, Donald Trump was ruthlessly mocked online for staring directly into that same star. In a court filing related to the former president’s lawsuit against Twitter, his lawyers claim that the two men actually have a lot in common.
“Crackpot ideas sometimes turn out to be true,” the filing reads. “The earth does revolve around the sun, and it was Hunter Biden, not Russian disinformation agents, who dropped off a laptop full of incriminating evidence at a repair shop in Delaware. Galileo spent his remaining days under house arrest for spreading heretical ideas, and thousands of dissidents today are arrested or killed by despotic governments eager to suppress ideas they disapprove of. But this is not the American way.”
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Trump was permanently exiled from Twitter in the aftermath of the Jan. 6, attack on the Capitol by his supporters. Trump sued Twitter, as well several other tech companies that had banned him, in 2021. Trump and his legal team argued that the ban was a violation of his First Amendment rights, but the suit was dismissed in May of this year by U.S. District Judge James Donato. The president has now taken his plea to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.
Trump’s team argued in the Monday filing that government officials are exploiting social media platforms “as cat’s paws to suppress opinions and information about matters that Americans consider of vital interest.” In the Trump worldview, these include claims “such as that the Hunter Biden laptop was authentic, the COVID virus leaked from a laboratory, COVID vaccines provide weak protection that does not outweigh the risk of vaccine injury, and the 2020 election was stolen.”
The issue of returning to Twitter may be more of a matter of principle for Trump. Following his ejection from the site, he built his own Twitter copycat, Truth Social, which has struggled to maintain a steady user base and finances. Despite rumors that new Twitter owner Elon Musk may reverse the ban, Trump has indicated he will not return to the platform. I am“not going on Twitter, I am going to stay on Truth,” he told Fox News in April. “I hope Elon buys Twitter because he’ll make improvements to it and he is a good man, but I am going to be staying on Truth. The bottom line is, no, I am not going back to Twitter.”
Rolling Stone reported earlier this month that Trump was relishing Musk’s struggles in his takeover of Twitter, privately expressing hope that the disastrous transfer of ownership would drive users to his own platform.
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