Donald Trump never showed any discipline, but his actions on Wednesday may have ruined his future more than the sum of all of his previous words and actions

Twitter finally banned Donald Trump. As a publicly-traded company, Twitter can do what it wants. While legally these platforms are not really different than publishers, optically they have positioned themselves as neutral conduits for the users that turn to them to communicate with their followers and critics.

Until the insurrection at the Capitol, the thought of “de-platforming” Trump was unsavoury as it would have invariably led right wing voices like Trump’s into the underground.

Image courtesy Brendan Gahan

But once The Donald incited an insurrection and essentially put the otherwise cowardly politicians in harm’s way, all bets were off. I suspect employees at Facebook, Twitter et al. read the riot act to their unwitting leaders Jack and Zuck, who were left with no choice but to lower the boom.

I always say that 80% of your success in life is not in what you say or do, but in what you hold back from saying or doing. Ideally, we walk to the ledge, look over, and turn around. Realistically, we surround ourselves with people who hold us back.

Donald Trump could have whined like the wanker that he is until January 20th, then raked in the money through appearances, books, and even a TrumpTV venture to take on FOX News. But those who lack discipline cannot help themselves, as The Donald proved. I assure you that eventually, Trump will come back on Facebook, YouTube and even Twitter, but his envy (of Obama first and Biden now), sloth (lack of preparedness), hubris (not resigning) and other vices led him to this devastating fall from [dis]grace that may actually hurt him more than the sum of all of the other words, deeds and actions he has been accused of. Teflon Don got away with pussy-grabbing, justice-obstructing and so on, but once he incited the mob to attack the citadel of the democracy, his luck ran out.

Trump could have used the nearly 100 million followers he had to drive them to TrumpTV, buy his books, and so on. Without that soapbox, TrumpTV will never really be as compelling as it may have been (at best), and at worse becomes a pipe dream as the Trump becomes the toxic brand it was destined to be.

America at its best is the greatest nation of the world, and this week America has to make a choice. Ironically, it took someone like Donald to bring it to the precipice.

Good riddance, Donald. No one had the courage to push Donald off that ledge to save America; not surprisingly, he couldn’t save himself.