Trump official: Former president would look 'pathetic' if he returns to Facebook -- and destroy his 'useless' Truth Social platform

Donald Trump is allowed back on Facebook and Instagram, but one anonymous former senior official said he would look "pathetic" if he came "crawling" back.

The former president was suspended two years ago from both platforms, along with Twitter, for inciting the Jan. 6 insurrection, but his recent reinstatement to all three could pose an existential threat to his own startup Truth Social website, according to a former official who spoke to Axios.

“If Trump elects to start using Facebook and Instagram again it will be a sign of weakness and an admission that his efforts to reach audiences more directly have failed,” the former senior Trump official said. "[They] smacked him in the face, and if he comes back crawling, it’s pathetic."

Trump hasn't posted yet on Twitter, despite being reinstated three months ago by its new CEO Elon Musk, but the former official said that would be bad for Truth Social's investors.

"It highlights how useless Truth is," the former official said. "It’s a test of who needs who more.”

Staffers from Meta, the parent company to Facebook and Instagram, met with Trump associates to explain the new policies that would govern the former president's usage of the platforms, should he return, but he didn't participate himself, according to sources.

He had more than 57 million followers on those platforms, far fewer than he can reach on Truth Social, and Facebook in particular drove campaign donations, while Twitter served as his megaphone to dominate news cycles.

Shares in Digital World Acquisition Corp., the company looking to take Truth Social public, have fallen more than 80 percent since their peak last March, and could tumble even further if Trump, whose contract with the platform ends in June, abandons it for other social media sites.

ALSO IN THE NEWS: Rampant ‘good old boys’ corruption is robbing Ohioans blind