The Trump show ended last week

Donald Trump was eclipsed in media attention last week by President Biden for the first time since Trump took office, according to internet audience data, social media and cable news .

Why is this important: After Trump ousted nearly every other personage and hot topic for five years, momentum for the new administration took hold last week and the former president stepped down, partly by choice and partly by being driven from the large platforms.

• The stories on Biden generated 36 million more interactions (likes, comments, shares) on social media than Trump last week, according to exclusive data from NewsWhip. During the campaign, Biden was never within 18 million interactions of Trump.
• Last week was the first time Biden had more cable news mentions than Trump, according to the Internet Archive Television News Archive. It also drew higher notes for its inauguration than Trump did four years ago.
• Biden has been mentioned more on social media than Trump since Jan. 20, according to Keyhole data. In the past three months, Trump has been mentioned twice as much.
• As of the previous week, pageviews for Trump content on five major news sites (WSJ, NYT, USA Today, Reuters, Politico) fell 35% during inauguration week, while views for Biden content increased 2.5x, according to data provided by Axios by SimilarWeb.

The big picture: The Trump show ended because he ceased to be president, but also because he was banned from major social media platforms.

• Trump’s dormant Twitter, Facebook and Instagram accounts shut off his stream of consciousness – and the reaction that followed – for the first time in years.
• He didn’t look for other ways to get his message across. With the exception of a rally on the day of departure before flying to Florida on January 20, Trump neither hopped on air nor broadcast messages through surrogates.
• However, he announced on Monday the opening of the “Office of the Former President,” saying in a statement that the office “will pursue the Trump administration’s agenda through advocacy, organizing and public activism.”

Go back: It became clear in the final days of the campaign that Biden was starting to gain more attention from Trump, not only online but also on television.

• In October, Biden not only crushed Trump in the nighttime ratings of their competing town halls, but was also a bigger draw for a previous association of town halls in the network.
• Biden’s speech at the Democratic National Convention drew a larger audience than Trump’s at the Republican National Convention, as did his speech on inauguration day.

Between the lines: The day of the inauguration was the inflection point of the country’s attention budget. Trump ranked higher in Google searches, social media attention and cable news every day before January 20, and Biden has been getting higher every day since.

And after: Biden caused a stir in his early days by rolling out executive orders – many of which are reversals of Trump’s policy – and planting a flag over a bill while Trump stays low.

• But past behavior indicates that Trump can only go so long without provoking controversy, while Biden will strive for predictability and consensus.