Trump’s tweets a no-go area

Bill English seems to have reached an entente cordiale over Donald Trump’s use of Twitter: the PM will lay off Trump’s tweets if the US President doesn’t criticise his Facebook offerings.

After meeting US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, English said he had not raised any concerns about Trump’s leadership style or his use of Twitter.

“I don’t think it’s our position to comment on the way an elected leader of another country conducts his business. We wouldn’t expect him to be raising issues about my Facebook.”

English’s Facebook hits are rather more mundane than Trump’s tweets and include such dramatic material as his spaghetti pizza and his “walk-runs”.

Tillerson refused to discuss his boss’ tweeting, saying Trump had “his own unique way” of communicating. “It’s served him pretty well and I don’t intend to advise him on how to communicate. That’s up to him.”

However, Labour leader Andrew Little was more than happy to wade in, saying Trump’s tweets about London Mayor Sadiq Khan after the London Bridge terror attacks were “ham-fisted and clumsy”.

“That can be said about many of Donald Trump’s tweets.”

Trump may have an amnesty from English on Twitter, but there was no invitation for him to visit in the diplomatic bag returning with Tillerson — English said it was too close to the election.

Wellingtonians were less diplomatic than English, giving Tillerson’s motorcade one-fingered salutes and thumbs-down. — Claire Trevett