New York, 25 August 2023 (tca/dpa/MIA) - Donald Trump returned to the platform X on Thursday night after being booked in Georgia on racketeering and election interference charges, ending a more than two-year-long hiatus from the platform formerly known as Twitter.

The 77-year-old former president posted a screenshot of a makeshift flyer that included his Fulton County jail mugshot and a link to his campaign website.

"MUG SHOT - AUGUST 24, 2023," the flyer read. "ELECTION INTERFERENCE NEVER SURRENDER!"

Trump was banned from Twitter in January 2021 for inciting the January 6, 2021 riot at the US Capitol. In November 2022, Elon Musk polled Twitter users on Trump's possible return after he bought the platform. They voted to lift the former president's ban.

Trump initially refused to return to Twitter. He sent zero tweets for months while using his own platform, Truth Social, to make posts. When he finally returned on Thursday night, his new tweet racked up tens of thousands of likes, retweets and responses within minutes.

Trump was arrested and fingerprinted Thursday night in Atlanta on charges that he and several of his allies attempted to overturn the 2020 election results in the state. While the arrest was Trump's fourth in a range of criminal cases across the country, it was the first time local authorities required him to take a mugshot.

The 45th president is also accused of lying on business records about paying hush money to in New York, illegally taking classified documents to his Mar-a-Lago home in Florida and trying to overturn the election through the January 6 riot in Washington.

Despite the various criminal charges, Trump retains a commanding lead in Republican polls for the 2024 presidential election. He and his allies accuse prosecutors of staging "witch hunts" to prevent his return to office.