Addressing the masses… through tweets?
October 2, 2017
From North Korea to Saturday Night Live, the Commander in Chief has tweeted about it. In the past eight months, President Donald Trump has employed Twitter as his main method of communicating directly with the American people. With a following of almost 40 million Twitter users, he is the twenty third most followed account on the app, TwitterCounter reports. He has posted an average of thirteen tweets a day over the past thirty days, and has almost thirty six thousand tweets in all.
Throughout the past week, the president has focused on his disagreement with the NFL. He believes that the players should all “#StandForOurAnthem” before games, whereas some players choose to kneel, link arms, sit, or even remain in the locker room. On September 23rd, he tweeted “If a player wants the privilege of making millions of dollars in the NFL, or other leagues, he or she should not be allowed to disrespect our Great American Flag (or Country) and should stand for the National Anthem. If not, YOU’RE FIRED. Find something else to do!”
That same day, Trump sent a public message to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, tweeting “Just heard Foreign Minister of North Korea speak at U.N. If he echoes thoughts of Little Rocket Man, they won’t be around much longer!” The day prior, he wrote “Kim Jong Un of North Korea, who is obviously a madman who doesn’t mind starving or killing his people, will be tested like never before!”.
Twitter has become home to the highly publicized back and forth of Kim and Trump, and the feud has since escalated to real threats. This messages of only 25 words compelled a response from the North Korean leader, with North Korea’s top diplomat saying Monday that a weekend tweet by U.S. President Donald Trump was a “declaration of war” and North Korea has the right to retaliate by shooting down U.S. bombers, even in international airspace, according to TIME News.
The Twitter handle @realDonaldTrump is also now infamous for reviews of the credibility of news sources. Trump has tweeted the phrase “Fake News” seventy three times, Entertainment Weekly reports. President Trump criticizes polls that he thinks are incorrect. In reference to his February travel ban, he said “Any negative polls are fake news, just like the CNN, ABC, NBC polls in the election,” CNN appears to be one of the main targets of these accusations, with Trump tweeting CNN and “Fake News” together nineteen times.
President have always had communication with their citizens, be it through Fireside Chats, video addresses, or planned speeches. Twitter, however, may have just become the new way of addressing the masses.