Russia views Trump tweets as official policy statements

(Image credit: Jorge Silva/AFP/Getty Images)

published 12 December 2017

When President Trump posts a tweet, it is shared with and analyzed for Russian President Vladimir Putin as any official statement by the president of the United States would be, Moscow indicated Tuesday.

"In any case, everything which is published from [Trump's authorized] Twitter account is perceived by Moscow as his official statement," said Putin representative Dmitry Peskov, Reuters reported. "Naturally, it is reported to Putin along with other information about official statements by politicians."

Trump averages about seven tweets per day. Since becoming president, he has used his Twitter account for everything from major policy announcements to petty feuds and name-calling. The implications of Russia's assumption may be most troubling in regards to North Korea, as it transforms into official American policy Trump's tweets declaring it is a waste of time for the U.S. to negotiate with "short and fat" Little Rocket Man.

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Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.