Burnie council shocked by anti-Trump tweets

A COMPANY 100 per cent owned by the Burnie City Council has launched an expletive-laden attack on US President Donald Trump and the Republican Party on its Twitter account.

Set up by the council in 2002, Tas Communications provides IT support, hosting, consulting and broadband telecommunications services to the state’s business community.

But, of late, Tas Communications has been providing a colourful critique of the Trump administration and how it is fairing.

In two tweets — since deleted after the Mercury con- tacted the council — the Tas Communications’ Twitter account attacked both Mr Trump’s plans to halt payments to health insurance companies serving the poorest customers of Obamacare and his stoush with the mayor of Puerto Rico’s capital city San Juan.

In one tweet from the Tas Communications account, Mr Trump and his team were referred to as “f#*#*n morons” (sic). The Mercury has chosen not to publish the other, more crude, expletive-ridden tweet in a family newspaper.

The first of the two tweets was posted on October 2.

Tas Communications director Rodney Greene said the tweets had been posted on the account by accident and had been since deleted — with the board initially unaware of the posts.

“It was totally accidental,” Mr Green said. “We are ensuring that no more damage is done, we are disappointed that it occurred,” he said.

The personal Twitter account of Tas Communications chief executive and former Burnie City Council IT manager David Gewin carried similar references to Mr Trump, when checked by the Mercury. Mr Gewin also criticised former prime minister Tony Abbott on his page, which says the “views pressed are my own”.

Mr Gewin’s personal Twitter account has since been deleted.

When contacted by the Mercury, Mr Gewin said he posted the Tweets on the Tas Communications page by accident — meaning to publish them on his own page.

“I deleted it as soon as I was alerted to it by the board,” he said. ex-