Trump's impulsive tweets often fall on deaf ears — even inside his administration

President Trump is constantly making waves with sudden Twitter directives, but oftentimes, nothing much comes of it — in some cases, reportedly because the request is just forgotten or ignored.

The Atlantic details how members of the Trump administration are sent scrambling when he blindsides them with an order on Twitter or in public. Sometimes, it actually does eventually go into effect, like when Trump tweeted about his transgender military ban (which this report says he impulsively did right after he promised aides he'd hold off on doing so). In other cases, officials push back on his orders, such as when he tweeted about withdrawing all troops from Syria, only to walk that back.

But in other cases, nobody ever seems to follow up on these sudden announcements, and nothing further happens. A prime example is Trump in March declaring that the U.S. would be cutting off aid to Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador. The Atlantic says the administration is not currently advancing this issue, despite Trump's pronouncement. Trump also made a big stir in March when he said that the Department of Justice and the FBI would review the Jussie Smollett case, but almost two months later, it's still not clear if they are.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

There are also instances, The Atlantic reports, where officials just ignore Trump's tweets, with a former White House official saying there were some they felt they could "sit quietly" on since they "could conceivably be about another agency," although this is apparently rarer than the other two strategies. Many of Trump's private demands are also "slow-walked or altogether ignored," the report says.

Wouldn't all of this enrage Trump? Perhaps, although one former White House official speculated that when the president sends tweets like the one about Central American aid, whether this actually happens is a "secondary" concern. Really, it's more about "public messaging." Read more at The Atlantic.