Wall Street Journal editorial board savages Trump's 'humiliating,' 'self-destructive' tweeting

Trump&#039;s tweeting is landing him in hot water

(Image credit: Mark Wilson/Getty Images)

last updated 6 June 2017

"Some people with a propensity for self-destructive behavior can't seem to help themselves, President Trump apparently among them," The Wall Street Journal editorial board wrote in Tuesday's newspaper. They were referring, with more toughness than love, to Trump's "cycle of Twitter outbursts and pointless personal feuding" over the weekend and into Monday, starting with his response to the London Bridge terrorist attack, in which, the editors said, Trump managed "to convert the mass murder into a referendum on his favorite subject, Donald J. Trump."

Specifically, Trump made himself "look small" by assailing London Mayor Sadiq Kahn, the WSJ editorial board said, and "in a humiliating coup de grace, the mayor's office put out a statement saying he 'has more important things to do than respond' to Mr. Trump's social-media insults. The U.S. commander in chief also has better uses of his time than making himself look foolish." But Trump's "more consequential eruption" was against his own Justice Department, tweeting out comments about his "travel ban" that are "reckless on multiple levels," the editorialists continued:

If Mr. Trump's action is legal on the merits, he seems to be angry that his lawyers are trying to vindicate the rule of law. Attorney General Jeff Sessions would be justified if he resigned, and this is merely the latest incident in which Mr. Trump popping off undermined his own lawyers. ... Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly has also suggested that the temporary visa shutdown is not an "immigration ban." If this pattern continues, Mr. Trump may find himself running an administration with no one but his family and the Breitbart staff. [The Wall Street Journal]

The editorial notes that Trump appears to tweet in response to what he views on cable news, and it ends by tallying the tweetstorms as "further evidence that the most effective opponent of the Trump presidency is Donald J. Trump." You can read the entire argument at The Wall Street Journal. Though if the Journal really wants Trump to curtail his self-destructive tweeting, its editors might have a conversation with the folks over at sister company Fox News, as CNN details in the report below. Peter Weber

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.