#BanTrump fundraiser: White House says America likes POTUS' use of Twitter

Former undercover CIA agent Valerie Plame Wilson, in her attempt to stop US President Donald Trump’s “ violence and hate,” has launched a fundraiser last week to buy Twitter. The White House responded to the news, saying the American people like the president's use of Twitter.

Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in an emailed statement that Wilson’s “ridiculous” attempt to shut down first amendment is the only clear violation and expression of hate and intolerance in the equation, the Associated Press reports. Wilson wants to purchase the social media platform so the president could no longer use it, but an analyst warned that Twitter could lose nearly a fifth of its value without Trump.

"If Twitter executives won't shut down Trump's violence and hate, then it's up to us. #BuyTwitter #BanTrump,” Wilson tweeted. The fundraiser has a GoFundMe page, which states that the POTUS’ tweets cause damage to the US and put people in harm's way.

In the page, Wilson stated that she hopes to raise enough money to buy a controlling interest of Twitter stock. She said she would look into other options to obtain "a significant stake" and champion the proposal at Twitter's annual shareholder meeting if she does not have enough to buy a majority of shares.

Wilson’s initiative to buy Twitter started to gain support. The campaign raised almost $6,000 of the billion-dollar goal as of Wednesday morning when a majority stake would cost about $6 billion. If Wilson would have a billion-dollar stake, she would become Twitter's largest shareholder. She would have a strong position to put forth influence on the company.

Monness Crespi Hardt & Co. analyst James Cakmak warns that Twitter might lose almost a fifth of its value if Trump quits tweeting, Bloomberg reports. He said the social media company would see up to $2 billion in market value wiped out if the president does not use it, adding that there is no better free advertising in the world than the US president. Losing its most prominent user, according to Cakmak, would lead to what is known as multiple compressions.

The identity of Wilson as a CIA operative was leaked in 2013. The culprit was an official in former US President George Bush's administration in an effort to discredit her husband, Joe Wilson, a former diplomat who slammed Bush's decision to invade Iraq. She left the agency in 2005.

The New York Times/YouTube