What years of Fourth of July tweets reveal about Trump
President’s social tone has changed since his simple greetings to U.S. in 2009
WASHINGTON— As of the Fourth of July, 2017, U.S. President Donald Trump will have been a Twitter user for nearly 12 per cent of his life, joining in 2009 at the age of 62 and continuing to this very day.
The net effect of this is that we have a reasonably good record of the past eight years of Trump’s life. It’s a public record unlike that of any other president, it’s safe to say, and it’s one that can show us how Donald Trump the businessman evolved into Donald Trump the aggressively confrontational politician.
Consider the Fourth of July. The Washington Post’s Trumphop tool retweets old Trump tweets on the same day and time as they were originally sent.
We noticed, as the Fourth approached, that Trump’s tweets related to the holiday have had a noticeably different tone in recent years than in years past.
2009
“Here’s to a safe and happy Independence Day for one and all — Enjoy it! -Donald J. Trump”
2010
“Wishing everyone a wonderful Independence Day weekend. We have a lot to be thankful for.”
2011
“Wishing everyone a wonderful Independence Day holiday weekend, a great celebration for a great country.”
The first three years of Trump’s Independence Day tweets were straightforward.
2012
“Tomorrow we celebrate Independence Day, America’s 236th birthday. Here is America’s actual birth certif- icate”
This is the new era of Trump, recognizing and revelling in the feedback that his more outrageous Twitter behaviour could provide.
As the holiday approached, Trump weighed in on the presidential election, having endorsed Republican Mitt Romney during the primary.
“Great! @MittRomney’s campaign is doing a superb job making inroads with the Evangelical Community”
2013
In 2013, Trump spent the Fourth celebrating a legal victory:
“@MikeDGarrison: ‘Judge orders Miss Pennsylvania to pay Donald Trump $5M in defamation case.’ @realDonaldTrump hits.”
He also retweeted a vulgar response to the settlement, adding that Miss Pennsylvania “said some really bad and stupid things”
2014
“Happy 4th of July to everyone, including the haters and losers!”
2015
“HAPPY 4TH OF JULY TO EVERYONE! MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”
“Why would Republican candidates want the support of Mitt Romney. He lost an election against Obama that should NEVER have been lost!”
2016
“Happy 4th of July! #Trump2016#AmericaFirst”
He then quickly reverted to his campaign persona, disparaging rival Hillary Clinton and Obama as “fools” and the former as “guilty.”
“With Hillary and Obama, the terrorist attacks will only get worse. Politically correct fools, won’t even call it what it is — RADICAL ISLAM!”
“Crooked Hillary Clinton is ‘guilty as hell’ but the system is totally rigged and corrupt! Where are the 33,000 missing e-mails?”