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Donald Trump (July 2021): He praises Devin Nunes as a "fighter and leader"
Photo: OCTAVIO JONES / REUTERS
Devin Nunes will start a new job in January 2022: The Republican congressman is to head a media company founded by ex-President Donald Trump.
The Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG) said on Monday evening (local time) in Palm Beach, Florida.
Nunes will leave the US House of Representatives, the statement said. The California MP has been a member of the Congress Chamber since 2003 and has shown himself to be an avid supporter of Trump in the past, including in one of the impeachment proceedings against the then president. Several US media reported that Nunes would have had a more difficult race ahead of him in next year's congressional election because of a redesign of constituencies.
Trump had announced in October that he wanted to found an alternative social network called Truth Social - under the umbrella of the specially founded TMTG.
The aim is to stand up to the "tyranny" of the big tech companies.
Concerning Nunes' personality, Trump now declared that he was a "fighter and leader."
Nunes understand "that we have to prevent the liberal media and big tech from destroying the freedoms that make America great."
By founding Truth Social, Trump responded to his expulsion from established social media.
Twitter, as well as Facebook and YouTube, blocked Trump's accounts in January shortly before the end of his term in office.
The trigger was the storming of the US Capitol by supporters of Trump - and the fact that he expressed sympathy for the attackers.
In addition, Trump continues to claim, without any evidence, that his presidential election victory in November 2020 was stolen by fraud.
With that he heated up the mood in the country.
Twitter, where more than 80 million users followed Trump, had been the most important communication platform for him until then.
aar / dpa
