WATCH: Legal Expert Barbara McQuade Explains Why Trump’s Tech Lawsuit is Going Nowhere

Last updated on July 9th, 2021 at 08:15 am

When Donald Trump rose to the presidency in 2016, he did so with lots of help from Twitter and Facebook. Twitter allowed him to post messages directly to his 75 million followers. And Facebook did little to stop the spread of disinformation coming from prominent right wing sites.

But following the January 6th insurrection, Trump was banned from both sites along with any other social media platform that matters. On Wednesday, the former president announced he would be suing Twitter, Google and Facebook. Legal Expert Barbara McQuade later explained why the suit is going nowhere.

McQuade told MSNBC that the case is “dead on arrival.” She also opined that the idea behind the lawsuit is just giving Trump talking points that would get heavy coverage in the media.

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The legal expert continued, “I think that President Trump and his lawyers know it, I think this is more of a PR stunt than a legal case. They know this case will be summarily dismissed, and that just adds to the talking points that even the courts are out to get him.”

McQuade further explained, “It (the First Amendment) states, ‘Congress shall pass no law’ — the courts have interpreted that to mean any form of government, and so whether it is the executive or the legislative branch… the government can’t restrict free speech. But Google and Twitter are private actors, and just as we could throw somebody out of our homes if they were unwanted guests, and just as Google and Twitter could do the same.”

Regardless of whether the suit it baseless or not matters little to Trump’s supporters. Expect to hear plenty about this case on Fox and Newsmax in the coming weeks.

Todd Neikirk

Todd Neikirk is a New Jersey based politics and technology writer. His work has been featured in psfk.com, foxsports.com and hillreporter.com. He enjoys sports, politics, comic books and spending time at the shore with his family.