Why the tweets matter

“Some people create their own storms, then get upset when it rains.”— Anonymous him,

Many people, including some of those who voted for wish that Donald Trump would get off Twitter or even that Twitter would suspend his account for rules violations.

From others, what I’ve heard is that while they wish he wouldn’t tweet, we should just ignore it and focus on policy. I don’t like his policies either, but the tweets do matter.

It ought to be, and once was, enough to say that communicating in a civil manner is something to be valued in a leader and that our nation’s image is not helped by the government being led by someone who asks like a petulant child.

But aside from civility, we ought to care about the tweets because they have real world consequences. I’ll just give a few examples. In December 2016, before taking office, Trump tweeted out criticisms of Lockheed Martin and the cost of one of its aircraft. Immediately, the company’s stock sunk, with investors concerned that this might signal a policy change.

This is such a concern that the Wall Street Journal keeps a “Trump Target Index” of stocks that have been impacted by the president’s words.

Then there is the rule of law. There has long been a tradition of independence for the Justice Department, and for good reason. Law enforcement is supposed to be separate from political influences.

But Trump has tweeted out criticisms of his own department’s policies and actions and called for investigations of political opponents. Echoing the dangerous “Lock Her Up” chant from the party convention last year (led by a man now under indictment), this is something you usually don’t see in modern democracies. The use of law enforcement agencies for partisan purposes is something typically done in third world dictatorships.

Lately, Trump has turned on FBI deputy director Andrew Mccabe. Much of the criticism of Mccabe is just plain false, but the consequences are real. Recent reports suggest that the Attorney General pressured the FBI director to fire Mccabe, but the director threatened to resign himself in protest.

Tweets can have personal consequences. When a Steelworkers Union leader criticized Trump’s misleading claims of saving jobs, the president went on the attack. The union official got death threats from some of Trump’s more rabid supporters.

Then, there are the other times he’s tried to get people fired, not just Mccabe, but private employees. He openly calls for protesting NFL players to lose their jobs. The bully pulpit the president wields is powerful and some have suggested that these tweets violate laws against public officials attempting to influence the employment practices of a private entity for partisan purposes.

Trump loves to attack the media, calling any coverage he doesn’t like “fake news” and the media “enemy of the people.” But it goes beyond that. He has repeatedly tweeted out simulated violence against CNN and recently one of his supporters was arrested for calling in nearly two dozen death threats against the network’s employees.

No president in my lifetime has been so dismissive of the rule of law and the rights of citizens.

Perhaps the most dangerous tweets are those taunting Kim Jong-un, the North Korean dictator, threatening him with “fire and fury.” This playground bullying, recently with phallic references, aren’t just undiplomatic; they can get people killed. The North Korean regime is secretive and corrupt, but it isn’t suicidal. They know the US could wipe them off the map in minutes. The only way they are likely to attack anyone outside their own borders is if they feel cornered to such an extent that they have nothing to lose.

That almost seemed to be the design when Trump tweeted dismissive comments to his own Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson, stating that diplomacy was a waste of time and implying a potential US attack by saying “we’ll do what needs to be done.” This came just a day after Tillerson had reported some progress in talks.

Note that I’ve hardly touched on the racial and religious animus, or the lies. Trump lies so constantly, about things both important and trivial, that we’ve almost become immune to it. This level of mendacity should still have the power to shock.

Some of his defenders will say that the president has free speech rights. Of course he does; in fact, he has a megaphone and a mostly-compliant media reporting everything he says. But free speech does not come without consequences or criticism. If any of the rest of us used Twitter the way he does, we’d have long since been kicked off the platform and out of our jobs.

Trump should face similar consequences. It’s up to us to hold him accountable.