The US president launches “near-daily missives from his Twitter account, which he says lets him get an ‘honest and unfiltered message out’ without having to go through the ‘FAKE MSM’”, reports The Washington Post.
He often uses Twitter to assign demeaning nicknames to adversaries: Rocket Man [Kim Jong-un], Sloppy Steve [Bannon] and Crooked Hillary [Clinton], among others.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
According to The Independent, Trump has posted 2,593 tweets in the past year, disparaged media outlets 103 times and Russia 105 times, called his defeated presidential rival Clinton “crooked” 37 times, and used his signature hashtag #MAGA or some other form of “Make America Great Again” 105 times.
His output includes insults, US policy ideas, retweeted anti-Muslim videos, and even veers into the ridiculous at times - including tweeting the non-word “covfefe”. But, however erratic, “Trump has achieved a connection with the public – for good or ill – that few world leaders can match”, says the newspaper.
As Trump told US journalist Maria Bartiromo in October: “When I put it out, you put it immediately on your show. I mean, the other day, I put something out. Two seconds later, I’m watching your show. It’s up.”
It is the president’s “way of going around the media filter directly to his voters while at the same time reaching broad swaths of news consumers who may not even have accounts on the social network”, says the National Public Radio (NPR) website.
Here are some of the most noteworthy tweets from the president’s first year in office:
Though not entirely accurate, this post “sent chills” through the US defence industry, which feared the then president-elect’s “bully pulpit”, says Time magazine. The US air force eventually reduced the total cost by buying a pair of 747s abandoned by a bankrupt Russian airline. Meanwhile, Trump flexed his muscles once again with subsequent tweets about General Motors, Lockheed Martin and Toyota that led the companies’ stock prices to dip immediately.
Crossed wires
Although criticising one’s predecessor is par for the course among US presidents, many felt that Trump’s allegations about Obama having Trump Tower wiretapped were a step too far.
The March 2017 claim was baseless, according to later testimony by former FBI director James Comey, who said there was no evidence of any listening equipment in the president’s former Manhattan residence and office building.
James Comey
On 9 May, Trump turned his ire on Comey, firing the FBI boss, who was probing possible Russian meddling during the US presidential election. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the firing made its way into the president’s twitter feed. In a July 2017 testimony in front of Congress, Comey now infamously stated: “Lordy, I hope there are tapes.”
Fraud news network
In July, a tweet deriding CNN set off widespread criticism, with some suggesting that the president was promoting violence against the media. The tweet - featuring a doctored video clip showing Trump bashing the head of a figure representing CNN - was posted just before the Sunday political talk shows aired, so it got a lot of attention. Indeed, it was the president’s most retweeted effort of 2017.
Kim and the giant button
“The hermit kingdom and its mysterious and mercurial leader Kim Jong Un had been a thorn in the president’s side throughout his first year in office,” says The Independent.
Repeat tests of intercontinental ballistic missiles, and numerous US intelligence reports that suggest North Korea has developed a nuclear-capable warhead, have led Trump to refer to Kim as “rocket man” on more than one occasion.
Wake up and smell the covfefe
In perhaps the best remembered of all the president’s tweets, posted just after midnight local time, Trump wrote: “Despite the constant negative press covfefe.”
He then appeared to have gone to bed, without finishing his thought or correcting his apparent mistake. Then-press secretary Sean Spicer barely even tried to explain it, telling reporters: “I think the president and a small group of people know exactly what he meant.”
Although it seems likely that the word Trump was reaching for was “coverage”, social media users have been trying to guess other alternatives or motivations ever since.
Despite the fact the tweet was deleted the following day, it remains the president’s third-most retweeted post of 2017.
Infographics by www.statista.com/chartoftheday for TheWeek.co.uk
Explore More
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
'We need solutions that prioritize both safety and sustainability'
A running list of all the celebrities Trump has pardoned
'The pattern is similar across America'
Judge blocks push to bar Harvard foreign students
Trump's trade war whipsawed by court rulings
What's next for Elon Musk?
Trump's super-charged pardon push raises eyebrows and concerns
Elon Musk departs Trump administration
