Psaki: Trump behavior ‘unlikely’ to change amid Facebook ban

White House press secretary Jen Psaki on Friday suggested it is unlikely former President Trump will change his behavior to warrant reinstatement on Facebook after the platform suspended him for two years.

“As we look at it, we learned a lot from President Trump, the former president, over the last couple of years about his behavior and how he uses these platforms,” Psaki said at a White House briefing.

“Feels pretty unlikely that the zebra’s going to change his stripes over the next two years. We’ll see,” she added.

Facebook announced Friday Trump would remain barred from the platform until at least Jan. 7, 2023. After that date, Facebook said it will evaluate whether the “risk to public safety” of restoring Trump’s account has abated.

If the suspension is then lifted, Trump will be subject to a “strict” set of sanctions for future policy violations, Facebook said.

Trump was first suspended from using the service on Jan. 7 after repeated incendiary posts about the violence at the Capitol the previous day.

The Capitol riot followed weeks of false claims that Trump spread on social media questioning the validity of the 2020 election.

Trump in a statement on Friday afternoon called the decision to ban him for two more years “an insult” to Americans who voted for him while repeating his false claim that the 2020 presidential election was “rigged.”

Psaki declined to opine on the severity of the punishment for Trump given his rhetoric, but she said social media platforms have a responsibility to police misinformation.

“It’s a decision for the company to make and any platform to make and clearly they’ve come out and made their decision,” Psaki said. “Our view continues to be, though, that every platform … that is disseminating information to millions of Americans has a responsibility to crack down on disinformation, to crack down on false information, whether it’s about the election or even about the vaccine as we’re trying to keep the American public safe and return to normal out in society.”