Adviser: Presidency unlikely to tame Trump the tweeter
Donald Trump ranting before dawn on Twitter about a former Miss Universe might not bring to mind Franklin Roosevelt reassuring Depression-battered radio listeners or Richard Nixon salvaging his 1952 vice presidential bid through his televised Checkers speech.
But the part-time Palm Beach resident’s distinctly Trumpian use of Twitter continues a tradition of presidents and candidates using new technology to make a personal connection with the public.
“Every president in the mod- The latest on the Trump transition is at “Countdown to Inauguration” on PostonPolitics.
ern era has sought to use technology to bring their message to more Americans. So there’s nothing new about that,” says presidential historian Timothy Naftali of New York University, a former director of the Nixon Library and Museum. “What’s different is that Trump explicitly rejects some of the conventions of presidential rhetoric and presidential messaging.”
Trump, for example, has used the term “loser” in 235 tweets and used “dumb” or “dummy” 222 times on his @realDonaldTrump Twitter account, according to TrumpTwitterArchive.com, a searchable collection of more than 30,000 Trump tweets. Trump described Democratic rival Hillary Clinton as “Crooked Hillary” 206 times — roughly once per WASHINGTON — President-elect Donald Trump said in an interview broadcast on Sunday that he did not believe U.S. intelligence assessments that Russia had intervened to help his candidac y, c asting blame for the reports on Democrats, who he said were embarrassed about losing to him.
“I think it’s ridiculous. I think it’s just another excuse,” Trump said in the interview, on “Fox News Sunday.” “I don’t believe it.”
He also indicated that as president, he would not take the daily intelligence briefing that President Barack Obama and his predecessors have received. Trump, who has received the briefing sparingly as president-elect, said that it was often repetitive and that he would take it “when I need it.” He said his vice president, Mike Pence, would receive the daily briefing.
“You know, I’m, like, a smart person,” he said. “I don’t have to be told the same thing in the same words every single day for the next eight years.”
He added that he had instructed the officials who give the briefing: “’If something should change from this point, immediately call me. I’m available on a one-minute’s notice.’”
Trump’s seeming dismissal of the importance of that daily inter-
action with intelligence agencies, as well as his claims of politically tainted intelligence reports on Russia, widened a remarkable breach between a president-elect and the agencies he will have to rely on to carry out priorities like fighting terrorism and deterring cyberattacks.
His stance on the issue is also putting him increasingly at odds with senior lawmakers on Capitol Hill, including members of his own party, who say that the evidence of Russian interference is clear and warrants a congressional investigation.
The Obama administration reached a consensus months ago that Russia was trying to meddle in the election.
After initially believing that Russia’s goal was to undermine American democratic processes, the intelligence agencies concluded a week after the vote that the Russian efforts had been intended, at least in their latter stages, to help Trump.
The president-elect said those new reports were politically motivated. “I think the Democrats are putting it out because they suffered one of the greatest defeats in the history of politics in this country,” he said in the interview, recorded on Saturday.