Donald Trump’s affinity for Twitter has long been known, and the president opened up about his online behavior in an interview with Barstool Sports’ founder Dave Portnoy that was released on Friday, The Hill reported.
“It used to be in the old days before this, you’d write a letter and you’d say, ‘this letter is really bad,’ you put it on your desk and you go back tomorrow and you say, ‘oh, I’m glad I didn’t send it,’” Trump said.
“But we don’t do that with Twitter. We put it out instantaneously, we feel great, and then you start getting phone calls, ‘Did you really say this?’ I say, ‘What’s wrong with that?’ And you find a lot of things. You know what I find? It’s not the tweets, it’s the retweets that get you in trouble.”
Most recently, Trump retweeted a video that included one of his supporters yelling “white power” at protestors. The president later deleted the retweet. Despite such controversy, Trump told Portnoy that he believes the social media platform is a powerful tool that he uses to combat the purported fake news that portrays his administration in a negative light.
Trump’s tweets have been reported on for their controversial content, which some have suggested at times violate the service’s guidelines. Back in April, some complained about Trump’s calls to liberate various states. The calls came after protestors pushed back against pandemic lockdown rules, and Trump expressed agreement with them.
Ultimately, the messages were deemed to not violate the service’s rules. Interestingly, the media service has reportedly provided politicians with more leeway when it comes to the content of their tweets.
As reported by Inverse , a study in the journal PLOS One released last year examined Trump’s tweets and concluded that there are four types: conversational, those focused on his campaign, advisory, and those focused on an issue he is currently engaged with.
The study noted that Twitter was one of Trump’s primary methods of communication during the 2016 Republican primaries and his presidential campaign, which carried him to victory at the ballot box. Notably, the researchers highlighted that the news cycles at the time were often driven by the president’s most controversial tweets.
Trump’s online activity may come back to haunt him. As outlined by CNBC , the super PAC Defeat by Tweet capitalizes on the president’s prolific online activity by taking donations every time he uses the social media platform. The funds raised are funneled into get-out-the-vote organizations, as well as groups that promote criminal and social justice reform.
