Trump's Twitter Account Vanished for 11 Minutes in 2017

Social media meltdowns are usually by politicians, not about them. But on November 2, 2017, something gloriously unprecedented happened: President Donald Trump's Twitter account vanished into the digital void for exactly 11 minutes.

The culprit? A customer support employee named Bahtiyar Duysak working his final shift at Twitter. In what may be the most legendary "I quit" moment in tech history, he pressed delete on the most followed presidential account in the world.

The 11-Minute Blackout

At 6:48 PM EDT, @realDonaldTrump went dark. Poof. Gone. No tweets, no followers, no presidential proclamations about "covfefe" or anything else.

Twitter initially blamed "human error" in a tweet that masterfully undersold the situation. The internet, naturally, lost its collective mind. Was it hackers? A coup? A glitch in the Matrix?

One Employee's Last Stand

The truth emerged within 24 hours. Twitter confirmed that a customer support employee, on their last day of work, had deactivated the account. Later reports identified Duysak, a contractor who'd been handling user reports.

According to his own LinkedIn post, someone had reported Trump's account (not unusual—this happened constantly), and the departing employee decided: "Yeah, this one I'll actually action."

In interviews, Duysak explained he didn't expect the deactivation to actually work. Twitter accounts, especially verified ones, had multiple safeguards. Presidential accounts? Presumably even more. But apparently, a regular customer support rep with the right access could delete anyone—even the nuclear codes guy.

The Aftermath

When Trump's account flickered back to life 11 minutes later, Twitter went into damage control mode:

• Conducted a full investigation of internal procedures
• Revised access controls for high-profile accounts
• Implemented additional safeguards for government officials
• Probably had some very awkward meetings with their security team

Duysak faced no legal consequences. Deactivating an account wasn't hacking or unauthorized access—it was literally his job. He just chose a spectacularly dramatic final target.

The Bigger Picture

The incident exposed something wild: the most powerful communication channel of the most powerful person on Earth was vulnerable to a single disgruntled employee having a bad day.

Before this, most people assumed presidential accounts had special protections. They didn't. Twitter's internal systems treated @realDonaldTrump the same as @YourWeirdUncleRanting. The only thing stopping mass deletions was employee restraint and (supposedly) robust oversight.

This wasn't the last time Trump's Twitter would make news—he'd eventually get permanently banned after January 6, 2021—but it was the most absurdly mundane crisis. No hackers, no foreign interference, no elaborate conspiracy. Just one guy on his way out thinking, "You know what? Why not."

In the annals of "going out with a bang," Bahtiyar Duysak didn't just burn a bridge. He temporarily deleted the President of the United States from the internet. For 11 beautiful, chaotic minutes, the world got a preview of what a Trump-free Twitter timeline looked like.

Spoiler: It was weirdly quiet.