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Donald Trump Credits Twitter For Stunning Presidential Victory

By Ashley Hoffman
Published on: 19:43 PST, Nov 12, 2016

Donald Trump said social media helped him win the 2016 presidential election. According to Donald, social media is “tremendous” and “does get the word out.” Trump’s Twitter account has effectively helped him to disrupt the presidential race at his leisure and voice his opinions at ease by firing off 140 characters on Twitter. The billionaire developer told Lesly Stahl in an upcoming 60 Minutes interview that social media is a “great form of communication” and gave him “a method of fighting back” against negative headlines. However, once in power, Trump plans to become more “restrained” when using platforms like Twitter and Facebook.

The President-elect noted his social media connections allowed him to win over states he was presumed unlikely to win. In an interview set to air on Sunday, Trump goes into detail with Stahl about his plans to cut back on social media once he’s in the White House.

“I’m going to be very restrained, if I use it at all, I’m going to be very restrained. I find it tremendous. It’s a modern form of communication. There should be nothing we should be ashamed of. It’s– it’s where it’s at. I do believe this, I really believe that– the fact that I have such power in terms of numbers with Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, et cetera, I think it helped me win all of these races where they’re spending much more money than I spent. And I won. I think that social media has more power than the money they spent, and I think maybe to a certain extent, I proved that.”

Trump emphasized that participation in social media is nothing to be ashamed of because “it’s where it’s at.” The President-elect monitors his social media presence very closely. Between Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, Donald Trump has about 28 million followers.

“It’s a great form of communication. Now do I say I’ll give it up entirely and throw out, that’s a tremendous form… I think I picked up yesterday 100,000 people. I’m not saying I love it, but it does get the word out.”

President-elect Donald Trump. [Image by Drew Angerer/Getty Images]

According to CBS, Trump said when a bad story surfaced, social media gave him an opportunity to respond.

“… When you give me a bad story or when you give me an inaccurate story… of course, CBS would never do a thing like that right?… I have a method of fighting back.”

Since his stunning victory on Tuesday, Trump pledged to never forget “the forgotten man and woman” and said he had a “really good meeting with President Obama.” Trump also gave some teasers about announcements concerning government appointments. On Thursday he posted a highly controversial tweet saying it is “unfair” that people “incited by the media” are protesting his election. He called the provocateurs “professional protesters.”

The next morning, Trump had a change of heart and said the protestors have a passion for their country.

“Love the fact that the small groups of protesters last night have passion for our great country. We will all come together and be proud!”

Tens of millions of people shared their opinions about the presidential election on Twitter and Facebook during Election Day. Twitter said more than 75 million tweets were in relation to the 2016 election. This number surpassed Election Day in 2012 where 31 million messages were sent. On Facebook, more than 115 million people discussed the election, which generated over 716 million likes, posts, comments, and shares, according to CNN Money.

Once Trump is inaugurated, it might be difficult to tell if he is posting or if White House aides are posting to his social media accounts on his behalf.

Accounts for President Obama and the White House publish content to Facebook and Twitter on a consistent basis. Only comments with the President’s initials are said to come from Obama directly, according to CNN Money. Barack Obama’s official social media communications are currently being archived by the federal government and by various social networking companies.

It is unclear whether or not Trump will take over the @POTUS social media accounts.

[Featured Image by Kena Betancur/Getty Images]

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