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Facebook's governing body decided on Wednesday to uphold Donald Trump's spell.
The ex-president, who was suspended after the storming of the US Capitol, can no longer use the social network to further spread his message of alleged electoral fraud.
However, Facebook's Oversight Board, which is made up of independent personalities, has urged the company to review Trump's suspension in six months.
Trump, meanwhile, remains blocked on Twitter, his favorite media platform.
In recent months, the social media lock has actually resulted in Trump being far less visible in public discourse than it used to be.
Trump tries to compensate for this with interviews and a new blog, but can no longer create the feverish arousal curves that he used to.
But even if he no longer captivates the attention of American society as before, Trump now seems to have his republican party firmly under control again - and all without Facebook, Twitter & Co.
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This can currently be seen in the dealings with Liz Cheney, number three Republican in the House of Representatives and daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney. No prominent Republican has opposed Donald Trump's "big lie" that Joe Biden's election victory was stolen as clearly and consistently as she did. Just this week, Cheney made it clear again on Twitter where she stands in terms of election fraud allegations.
"The 2020 presidential election was not stolen," said Cheney. "Anyone who says so is spreading THE BIG LIE, opposing the rule of law and poisoning our democratic system." But this makes Cheney increasingly isolated in her party and there are serious efforts to push her out of office. Much like you, Trump critic Mitt Romney, who was booed at a party event in his home state of Utah last weekend, is doing.
Dealing with Cheney and Romney sheds telling light on the state of the Conservative Party five months after the violent assault on the Capitol fueled by Trump's great lie.
At first it looked as if the shock of the coup attempt would lead Republicans to break with Trumpism after many, including prominent Republicans, had clearly distanced themselves from accusations of electoral fraud.
Lies as proof of loyalty
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Hopes of saying goodbye to Trumpism were further nourished when Trump's Twitter and Facebook accounts were banned and he lost his main megaphones. But it is now clear that Trump's influence on the party remains strong. And holding on to your big lie is becoming more and more of a loyalty test in the Republican Party. "Knowingly repeating a lie - an act of immorality - is now a show of Republican loyalty," writes Michael Gerson, a former close advisor to President George W. Bush and now a conservative columnist for the Washington Post.
The best example of this is the Republican minority leader in the House of Representatives, Kevin McCarthy.
After January 6, he initially clearly distanced himself from Trump and made the president responsible for the Capitol storm.
In the meantime, however, he is back on Trump line and is sawing Cheney's chair at the same time.
Others in the party were “worried” about her and that she would not be able to “get the party's message across” before the midterm elections in 2022, he said in a TV interview.
It was ultimately a convoluted way of saying that his party wants to hold on to the election fraud lie and that someone like Cheney who insists on the truth is therefore a liability.
Belief in "exiled presidents"
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McCarthy's number 2, Steve Scalise, who said in an interview with “Axios” what the argument with Cheney is really about was even clearer; namely, not to upset Trump. "Trump is still a very active part of our party," said Scalise. "The idea that you could just ignore him, that's not where we are right now." On Wednesday, Scalise announced that he was supporting an alternative candidate against Cheney.
The Republicans seem like the sorcerer's apprentice who can no longer get rid of the ghosts he once called.
After the election in early November, the Republicans carried on Trump's election fraud allegations for months, and 139 Republican MPs and eight senators voted against certification of the election in early January.
When they stormed the Capitol, they saw the devastating effects of the allegations of election fraud.
And now they can't get away from it - just as little as from Trump.
According to polls, 70 percent of Republican voters still believe that Trump was cheated out of winning the election.
And as long as he is seen by a majority of Republicans as the “president-in-exile”, he has a good chance of keeping the party under his control.
The Facebook decision is unlikely to change that much.