All a-Twitter at key strokes

The rest of the world may be hanging on United States President Donald Trump’s Twitter feed but Acting Prime Minister Winston Peters reckons he doesn’t bother – and claims he would fire anyone who does. Peters claimed we couldn’t even be sure if Trump’s tweets were real.

That news might be reassuring to the rest of the world, given Trump’s latest angry tweet warning the leader of Iran to ‘‘never, ever threaten the United States again’’. The tweet comes after Iranian President Hassan Rouhani warned of ‘‘the mother of all wars’’ if America pursued hostile policies against the country.

‘‘America should know that peace with Iran is the mother of all peace, and war with Iran is the mother of all wars,’’ Rouhani said to Iranian diplomats, The Independent reported.

Trump’s response, tweeted in capitals, warned Iran would suffer consequences ‘‘the likes of which few throughout history have ever suffered before’’.

‘‘We are no longer a country that will stand for your demented words of violence and death. Be cautious.’’

There doesn’t seem to be much doubt that the tweet indeed came from Trump.

Like much of his domestic policy, Trump’s foreign policy is often conducted over Twitter.

But not according to Peters, who rather than wade into the tricky area of criticising the US president for intemperate language, sidestepped the issue by claiming there wasn’t actually any evidence to prove the reply came from Trump.

When reporters at Peters’ weekly press conference yesterday offered to show it to him as proof, the NZ First leader wasn’t interested. There was no evidence the tweet was made by Trump and ‘‘it’s clear a lot of Mr Trump’s tweets are not put out by him’’, he said.

Peters, also foreign affairs minister, was so dismissive of Trump’s Twitter feed, in fact, he suggested he would fire any of his officials at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade for following it. This will likely cause a flurry at MFAT, where, no doubt, anyone who is serious about following United States foreign policy is plugged into Trump’s Twitter feed on a daily, if not hourly, basis. In fact, you could argue it would be negligent for them not to.

Peters’ admission that he does not tweet, meanwhile, may come as a blow to his 25,000 followers. His Twitter feed of ribbon cuttings and official statements is apparently updated by one of his officials.

This presumably explains Peters’ insistence that it may one of Trump’s aides, rather than the man himself, manning the Twitter feed.

But, even in the increasingly bizarre world that stands for politics these days, it’s a stretch to accept that an anonymous aide might be out-Trumping the president in stoking global uncertainty.

Winston Peters . . . suggested he would fire any of his officials at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade for following Donald Trump’s Twitter feed.