Donald Trump's presidential term expires at noon Eastern time on January 20. But his time on Twitter has come to an early end; Twitter announced today (January 8) that it will permanently suspend the president's personal Twitter account, @realDonaldTrump.

The move came just two days after Trump repeatedly claimed he was cheated out of reelection (he wasn't) and Trump's supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol, forcing Congress to temporarily delay certifying his opponent in last November's election, Joe Biden, as the winner.

At the time, Twitter gave the president a 12-hour time suspension and suspended his account for violating Twitter rules with three tweets that appeared to encourage violence.

Yesterday (January 7), Trump's tweeting privileges were restored, but it turned out that Twitter had only given him a temporary reprieve.

In announcing Trump's permanent suspension in a tweet, in what must have been the most poignant irony for the president, Twitter cited "the danger of inciting further violence." The blog post specifically cited two tweets from President Trump today, in which he again complained about the election results and announced his intention to miss Biden's inauguration. These tweets could be interpreted as false claims that the election results are in dispute, which could lead to further unrest, Twitter noted.

This is a turnaround from the social network's hands-off approach to Trump's often inflammatory tweets dating back to before his presidency. For the past four years, Twitter has insisted that there was a public interest in Trump tweeting without intervention, even as critics complained that the president was using the platform to spread information.

Trump still maintains the official presidential Twitter account @POTUS, which will be handed over to President-elect Joe Biden after he is sworn into office on January 20. Nevertheless, President Trump attempted to vent his anger at Twitter by tweeting from the @POTUS account, but these tweets have since been deleted. The President also attempted to tweet from his re-election campaign account, but that appears to have been suspended as well.

Twitter is actually something of a latecomer when it comes to removing President Trump from its service this week.

Prior to this, Facebook had blocked the president's posts on both its site and Instagram until at least the end of his term at the end of this month; Twitch has also disabled President Trump's account indefinitely, and will "re-evaluate" its status after President-elect Joe Biden takes office. re-evaluate" the situation.

The president may soon have more problems than just not being able to join his favorite social media site. On Friday, congressional Democrats began distributing impeachment motions in preparation for an impeachment vote as early as Monday.