Former CIA officer Valerie Plame was roughly $1 billion short of her goal to buy a major stake in Twitter and persuade the publicly traded company to ban President Donald Trump -- so she started a GoFundMe campaign to raise that sum and, as the page says, "#BuyTwitter and delete Trump's account."
On CNN's "The Situation Room" Thursday, she conceded the goal was "really ambitious," but said the effort was mainly about drawing attention to what she says is the potential for Trump, a prolific Twitter user, to tweet the US into a nuclear confrontation.
"The point is, I want to shine a spotlight on showing how dangerous Trump and his Twitter button can be," Plame said.
Plame said she's trying to show that people do not "just have to stand by" as the President tweets. She also said she will not benefit financially from the campaign, and any proceeds it nets short of the goal would go to Global Zero, an organization Plame has worked with that advocates for complete nuclear disarmament.
Plame said Trump's behavior on Twitter made her concerned that his threats could provoke an attack from North Korea.
"This is deadly serious," Plame said.
She said she hopes the campaign pressures Twitter to ban Trump.
Twitter did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Public opinion surveys have regularly shown sizable majorities criticize Trump's use of the social media platform and say his tweets send the wrong message to world leaders.
Trump has lashed back at criticism of his tweeting on many occasions, at one point calling it "MODERN DAY PRESIDENTIAL."
Plame was a covert officer in the CIA until her identity was leaked in a scandal that gripped the George W. Bush administration.
As of Thursday afternoon, Plame's effort had raised $50,000 towards the $1 billion goal.
