Trump's former campaign staff fed him positive news to keep him from rage-tweeting

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last updated 22 February 2017

President Trump's former campaign staff formulated a strategy for keeping the quick-to-tweet candidate off of Twitter, and it involved healthy doses of praise from the media. When there was none, the staffers would work with Trump-friendly outlets to ensure there would be something they could print and deliver to Trump's desk, Politico reports:

For example, when Trump engaged in a Twitter war with the father of a slain Muslim U.S. soldier in Iraq, Khizr Khan, the team set up a meeting with Gold Star Mothers of Florida and made sure to plant the story in conservative media. Breitbart also wrote stories about Khan's relationships with the Democratic Party. "We made sure that conservative media was aware of it, they connected the echo chamber," the former official said.During another damage-control mission, when former Miss Universe Alicia Machado took to the airwaves to call out Trump for calling her "Miss Piggy" and "Miss Housekeeping," the communications team scrambled to place a story in conservative friendly outlets like Fox News, the Washington Examiner, the Daily Caller, and Breitbart. [Politico]

"If candidate Trump was upset about unfair coverage, it was productive to show him that he was getting fair coverage from outlets that were persuadable," explained former communications director Sam Nunberg. Another former Trump campaign official added: "[Trump] saw there was activity so he didn't feel like he had to respond. He sends out these tweets when he feels like people aren't responding enough for him."

Politico adds that aides in the White House might be taking note, as they have noticed "leaving [Trump] alone for several hours can prove damaging, because he consumes too much television and gripes to people outside the White House."

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Jeva Lange was the executive editor at TheWeek.com. She formerly served as The Week's deputy editor and culture critic. She is also a contributor to Screen Slate, and her writing has appeared in The New York Daily News, The Awl, Vice, and Gothamist, among other publications. Jeva lives in New York City. Follow her on Twitter.