Trump on Twitter: An overview
President’s daily tweets include threats, insults
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s tweets have transformed political communications and defined his first year in the White House.
From threatening North Korea with nuclear annihilation and Mexico with a military invasion to taunting his critics and undermining members of his own Cabinet, Trump has used Twitter in ways that have riled Washington and unnerved America’s allies.
Staff and Republican leaders have pleaded with him to rein in his Twitter use, but Trump insists Twitter lets him speak directly to Americans by bypassing “biased” news outlets. He has 45 million followers at @realDonaldTrump and 21.5 million at @ POTUS, but connects with millions more as each tweet is shared repeatedly, and often serves as the source of news stories in the media outlets he criticizes.
Here are 9 of the most eye-popping Trump tweets of 2017:
1. “Don’t believe the main stream (fake news) media. The White House is running VERY WELL. I inherited a MESS and am in the process of fixing it,” Trump tweeted Feb. 18 following a combative news conference amid reports of problems in the West Wing.
2. “How low has President Obama gone to tapp my phones during the very sacred election process. This is Nixon/Watergate. Bad (or sick) guy!” Trump tweeted March 4, comparing the alleged wiretapping to the criminal acts of Watergate. He never produced evidence.
3. “either elect more Republican Senators in 2018 or change the rules now to 51 percent. Our country needs a good ‘shutdown’ in September to fix mess!” Trump tweeted May 2, blaming Senate rules, which require 60 votes to pass most legislation, for the exclusion of border wall funding from a spending bill.
4. “James Comey better hope that there are no ‘tapes’ of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press!” Trump tweeted May 12 appearing to threatening Comey after reports that Trump called for loyalty.
5. “I told Rex Tillerson, our wonderful Secretary of State, that he is wasting his time trying to negotiate with Little Rocket Man … Save your energy Rex, we’ll do what has to be done!” Trump tweeted in a series of Oct. 1 tweets, mocking North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
6. “… We cannot keep FEMA, the Military & the First Responders, who have been amazing (under the most difficult circumstances) in P.R. forever!” Trump tweeted Oct. 12, threatening to pull federal emergency workers from the hurricaneravaged island.
7. “Why would Kim Jong-un insult me by calling me ‘old,’ when I would NEVER call him ‘short and fat?’ Oh well, I try so hard to be his friend — and maybe someday that will happen!” Trump tweeted Nov. 11 from an Asia-Pacific economic summit where he was seeking to rally global pressure against the rogue nation.
8. “It wasn’t the White House, it wasn’t the State Department, it wasn’t father LaVar’s so-called people on the ground in China that got his son out of a long term prison sentence — IT WAS ME. Too bad! LaVar is just a poor man’s version of Don King, but without the hair. Just think,” Trump tweeted Nov. 22 about the father of a UCLA basketball player after his son’s release from China for shoplifting.
9. “Don’t focus on me, focus on the destructive Radical Islamic Terrorism that is taking place within the United Kingdom. We are doing just fine!” Trump tweeted Nov. 29 at British Prime Minister Theresa May following her criticism of his retweets of anti-Muslim videos. He initially used the wrong Twitter handle for her.