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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsDonald Trump's Tweets Are Providing the Real Story of His Presidency
By Ed Kilgore
June 5, 2017
1:39 pm
One of the things that makes Donald J. Trump an unprecedented figure in American politics is his frequent use of social media specifically, Twitter to make personal pronouncements on matters large and small. In general, those pronouncements feel undisciplined and half-baked. That was true even before he became president of the United States, and it is even more remarkable now that those fingers that tap out sloppy and provocative 140-character tweets have enormous real-life power. His Twitter habits certainly give him even more command over the news cycle than presidents already possess: A Trump tweetstorm is now the epitome of must-see social media.
But after a fresh tweetstorm in which the president, among other things, pointedly uses the latest London terrorist attacks as grounds for an angry retrospective attack on the courts and even his own Justice Department for watering down his original travel ban, presidential counselor Kellyanne Conway went on the Today and attacked [t]his obsession with covering everything he says on Twitter and very little of what of he does as president. Conway was, of course, trying to displace discussion of Trumps tweets related to the London attacks (which included what might technically be described as lies about Londons mayor) with the calmer official statements of solidarity coming out of other administration outlets. But still, it was a shocking assertion and one worth challenging.
For one thing, Conway probably should not contrast her bosss statements on Twitter to presidential actions, given his light collection of actual accomplishments and his administrations often internally conflicting and/or incoherent statements of policy and intention. Are we to ignore what the president himself says in favor of what Sean Spicer says? I dont think so. And lets be clear about what Twitter is and is not: Its a medium, not some different language. As the New York Times Maggie Haberman said on Twitter yesterday:
Link to tweet
Trumps tweets are no less authoritative than Trumps comments in a press availability or a speech. This mornings tweetstorm, moreover, included actual news. As my colleague Eric Levitz pointed out, the presidents actual intentions in promoting his travel ban are at the center of the litigation currently holding it up which the administration (i.e., those politically correct DOJ lawyers Trump excoriates in one tweet) is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to resolve. So by letting the whole world know he thinks his original, religion-specific executive order reflected what he wants and the country needs, Trumps tweets will almost certainly supply new evidence to his opponents in court. And indeed, a certain very prominent Republican lawyer thinks so, too:
more
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2017/06/trumps-tweets-offer-the-real-story-of-his-presidency.html
elehhhhna
(32,076 posts)SFnomad
(3,473 posts)Only pay attention to the man behind the curtain, the fictitious one his advisors are trying to tell you is the real deal.
dalton99a
(81,450 posts)smirkymonkey
(63,221 posts)Are they?
dalton99a
(81,450 posts)smirkymonkey
(63,221 posts)would tweet such insane, childish, vulgar garbage. I feel like I am losing my mind because this man's behavior and what he gets away with are just things I can no longer wrap my mind around. It's like an episode of the Twilight Zone on meth.
dalton99a
(81,450 posts)Hekate
(90,643 posts)spanone
(135,821 posts)L. Coyote
(51,129 posts)alterfurz
(2,474 posts)tblue37
(65,319 posts)should be ignored.