9% is a hell of an insurance policy. I don't disagree, the man does not do small things, but I do wonder if he just bought insurance for more people than himself.
I mean, you say that. But the literal former president of the USA got de-platformed from twitter, and we don't hear about him nearly as much as when he had a twitter.
Maybe it is actually worth that amount of money, if entire elections can be influenced like that.
What was the influence Trump's banning had over the election?
Especially since it occurred after the election, that's a good question.
You can agree or disagree that Trump being banned from the platform that he was most known for, will effect his future election chances, and you can disagree with if you want that to happen or not, but that is completely unrelated to the point.
But I think it is unfortunate that people on HN sometimes are so jumpy to find a disagreement, that they mis-understand the point so easily.
Instead of thinking "This person didn't know that Trump was banned after the 2020 election, what an idiot!", instead you could have thought "Maybe he is talking about future elections, instead of the one that happened previously to his ban, which would obviously be really stupid!"
He didn't stop getting wall-to-wall coverage in all media when he was banned for Twitter.
It did start fading shortly after he left office.
I mean, it could be coincidence, but it does seem to suggest an obvious alternative explanation for why attention to him dropped.
If there's declining interest in him among the public, maybe it's because he isn't president anymore.