Donald Trump’s habit of announcing anything and everything on social media is quite well known. The US President not only rants on Truth Social but also uses the platform to offer his political insights and even share major updates about policies and executive orders.
However, not all White House decisions are suitable for immediate posting on social media and in such cases, staffers step in to stop Trump from doing so. A similar situation reportedly occurred recently, according to The Wall Street Journal, after Trump wanted to post about a change in U.S. drug policy, but was stopped.
As reported by Huffpost, during a meeting in early December with Kim Rivers, the CEO of Florida-based cannabis company Trulieve, Trump confidante Howard Kessler, and Florida Sheriff Gordon Smith, a decision was made to shift cannabis from a Schedule I to a Schedule III substance.
View this post on Instagram
Since 1970, when the Controlled Substances Act was enacted, cannabis had been classified as a Schedule I drug, placing it in the same category as heroin, cocaine and methamphetamine. It was defined as having “no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse.”
Trump was reportedly eager about sharing the news with the public and thus wanted to post about it on Truth Social. However, the executive order to carry out the decision had not been drafted and therefore, the President had to be stopped.
Speaking to WSJ, Smith said, “his lawyers and his staff, they started yelling, ‘No sir, you can’t yet; there’s a 30-day period’, it’s gotta go through this and that. They had to stop him from posting.” Given Trump’s history of frequent postings on social media, it is quite likely that had he not been stopped by the officials, he would have posted the news already.
Moreover, his decision of signing the executive order regarding the cannabis, effectively alienated a section of the Republican base. Mike Johnson, the House Speaker was present on call throughout Trump’s meeting with Rivers, Smith and Kessler and argued that cannabis was a “gateway drug” that was highly dangerous.
President Trump has announced an executive order reclassifying marijuana as a Schedule III drug, effectively easing federal restrictions on the drug. https://t.co/cr4cO7DPPe pic.twitter.com/wlS7w7u3W7
— ABC News (@ABC) December 18, 2025
However, that did not stop Trump from making the decision official. While he has, for now, been prevented from posting about it, once the executive order is passed, it would be interesting to see how he presents the news to the world.
Besides making news about marijuana, Trump has also been under the constant spotlight over concerns regarding his health and his ties with the disgraced financer Jeffrey Epstein. With the Epstein files being released, a number of images and documents featured Trump’s pictures and name, highlighting his relationship he had with Epstein.
Though Trump administration has been denying any ties between the President and Epstein, there were images of Trump in the files that were quietly redacted by the Department of Justice. However, those had to be republished amid outrage and criticism from Democrats.
