Welcome back to #TrumpTweetWatch2k17!
Before we break down the first official week of Trump administration tweets, let’s begin with the fact that I had to write and rewrite this week’s column at least six times since last Monday. I’m already so overwhelmed by the sheer quantity of alarming tweets from @realDonaldTrump and @POTUS that I kind of want to just ignore this post and take a nap instead.
But this column isn’t called #AliceComplainsConstantly2k17 (although maybe it should be?), so let’s move on to some of Donald J. Trump’s tweets since he was sworn in as the 45th president of the United States on Friday, Jan. 20, 2017:
The Good
Peaceful protests are a hallmark of our democracy. Even if I don’t always agree, I recognize the rights of people to express their views.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 22, 2017
This tweet is actually pretty rad. (This is exactly the kind of High Quality Objective Analysis™ you will soon come to expect from #TrumpTweetWatch2k17. You’re welcome.)
A lot of people were worried that a man who famously cannot handle personal criticism of any kind shouldn’t be allowed in the White House, especially with his Android in hand.
It turns out we had nothing to worry about, at least not this time. When 3 to 4 million Americans and additional participants from across the globe took to the streets to protest Trump’s presidency, I would’ve bet everything I own (a.k.a. nothing; I own nothing—not even my own reproductive rights) that President Donald J. Trump would lose it on Twitter. I’m happy to see that he took the high road.
This is especially good news considering the recent history of some presidents’ reactions to peaceful protests against their administrations. Famously, Richard Nixon sent the Ohio National Guard to the campus of Kent State University on May 4, 1970 in response to over 2,000 students’ days-long protest of his Cambodia Incursion. Despite the lack of violence on the students’ part, at least 28 National Guardsmen ended up firing into the crowd, killing four students and injuring nine.
So yes, it’s great to see President Trump announce his public support of peaceful protests, especially given the fact that it is a constitutionally protected right. But let’s not get too secure in our optimism. After all, many historians and presidential scholars have pointed out the exhaustive list of similarities between Presidents Nixon and Trump. Carl Bernstein (of Woodward and Bernstein, a.k.a. the dudes who uncovered the Watergate scandal in the 1970s) even went on a post-election media tour of sorts to tell the American public that Trump is, in fact, worse than Nixon:
This factless madness shows @realDonaldTrump to be unhinged. If PresNixon had a Twitter account it would not reflect this much paranoia.
— Carl Bernstein (@carlbernstein) November 28, 2016
So, you know, that’s comforting.
But yes, I’ll admit it; I was wrong. I guess I just needed to wait until the second full day of his presidency to finally witness that Trump Pivot we were promised!
The Bad
Watched protests yesterday but was under the impression that we just had an election! Why didn’t these people vote? Celebs hurt cause badly.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 22, 2017
In under two hours, our new president’s personal Twitter account released two enormously contradictory statements about the virtues-slash-horrors of public protest. There’s a lot wrong here, but there are two main reasons I take issue with this tweet (and its literal opposite counterpart):
1. The Trump Administration can’t even communicate one coherent message on a single Twitter account. This is what would happen if you ask two children if they ate Halloween candy even though they haven’t had dinner yet, and one of them loudly yelled “NO!” over the other one (who had already started to nod his head and say “yes”). Meanwhile, whether you heard that “yes” or not, neither of them will meet your gaze, and they both have chocolate smeared across their guilty little faces.
The problem here is that this behavior isn’t cute when it comes from the Twitter account of our 45th president, the most powerful man in the world.
As ex-Obama White House staffers Jon Favreau and Dan Pfeiffer discuss in their latest episode of the Pod Save America podcast, it’s crucial that the White House communicates clearly and honestly with the American people even in times of peace. If they can’t manage that, how can we trust them to tell the truth in times of unrest?
Check out the whole conversation here:
- This tweet has less focus in 140 characters than I have in my multiple attempts to write this column. Except it’s totally okay for me to have ADHD; I’m not president (you’re welcome).
And you know what? I’d even venture so far as to say it would be okay for the president to have ADHD too, as long as he has it under control. But he doesn’t. Trump’s attention span is so short that he can’t even sit through intelligence briefings. I cannot imagine a world in which that isn’t one of the most terrifying sentences you could possibly hear about your current president.
Experts and former White House staffers from every recent administration (Democrat and Republican) agree that one of the most necessary attributes that a sitting president must possess is a reliably focused attention span. However, in a POLITICO story from September 2016, even Trump’s own campaign staffers confessed that they were worried he didn’t have what it takes to stay present in any conversation that doesn’t revolve around praising him.
“But Alice, that article was written before the election,” you protest. Yes, that is true. Good point. Let’s see what kind of inside scoop, behind-the-scenes coverage is out there of Trump’s first week in office. Maybe he learned how to focus and is on top of his presidential duties now.
Let’s see what The New York Times’ Maggie Haberman had to say about Trump’s new daily routine now that he’s moved to the White House:
“His mornings, he said, are spent as they were in Trump Tower. He rises before 6 a.m., watches television tuned to a cable channel first in the residence, and later in a small dining room in the West Wing, and looks through the morning newspapers: The New York Times, The New York Post and now The Washington Post.
But his meetings now begin at 9 a.m., earlier than they used to, which significantly curtails his television time. Still, Mr. Trump, who does not read books, is able to end his evenings with plenty of television.
In between, Mr. Trump signs executive orders in the Oval Office and has meetings in the West Wing.”
Cool. So as usual, Morning Joe grabs his attention more than, say, the actual business of the country. But hey, at least we know that if we ever want to communicate with him, all we have to do is appear as a panelist on Fox and Friends. That’s how the modern American presidency works, right?
“So average in so many ways”
If Chicago doesn’t fix the horrible “carnage” going on, 228 shootings in 2017 with 42 killings (up 24% from 2016), I will send in the Feds!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 25, 2017
Congratulations to @FoxNews for being number one in inauguration ratings. They were many times higher than FAKE NEWS @CNN – public is smart!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 25, 2017
I couldn’t figure out which tweet is worse, so I’ll let you decide:
- First of all, we have a promise from the president of the United States—delivered via social media—to impose martial law and a federal takeover of a U.S. city without an explicit request or plea from the city’s mayor or state’s governor.
What’s especially worrisome here is the complete lack of context for this tweet: Why is he so focused on Chicago? What does he mean when he says “send in the Feds,” exactly? (As POLITICO pointed out, it’s “not clear whether he meant federal law-enforcement authorities or federal troops”). Why is “carnage” in quotes? Is it supposed to be a reference to a line in his Inaugural Address about restoring law and order, eliminating gang violence and putting an end to “this American carnage?” If that’s the case, why is he quoting himself?
Other than the overwhelming quantity of questions and existential crises this tweet inspires, however, I have real problems with it. First of all, it’s possible that this entire threat is motivated by the fact that Trump and Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel are feuding, according to Salon. Policy should never be based on a president’s personal opinions of a city mayor, especially when there is no relevant precedent for such actions.
My second qualm is summed up nicely in a Vanity Fair article from last week: “Trump’s tweet came minutes after Fox News host Bill O’Reilly reviewed the statistics on his show, The O’Reilly Factor, suggesting that Trump was watching the program.” Guys, we have a president who is so addicted to watching cable news and so loyal to hosts who offer him praise that he allows his administration’s policies and rhetoric to be dictated by people like Bill O’Reilly. And whatever you think of Bill O’Reilly, it’s important to note that he does not hold elected office. He should not have this much influence over our president.
…Which brings me to the second tweet:
- The President of the United States tweeted an endorsement of one news outlet in the first sentence while wrongfully attempting to discredit another news outlet in the following sentence. Oh, and his entire justification for praising the first outlet is based on their ratings of an event centered around Trump and his own bloated ego.
By openly favoring one news outlet over others, Trump is setting Fox News up to be America’s version of state TV, which is a popular feature in countries like Russia that are notably undemocratic in practice. Trump is setting himself up to have the option of turning to Fox News and Fox News alone as the television station he uses to communicate his message with the American public. Even if every other news station abandons him for his refusal to tell the truth or answer questions directly, Fox News will still be there. This is terrifying. This is how democracies fall.
In Summation
Much like with the carrier pigeons of days gone by, news in the Age of Technology travels via bird. Unlike with carrier pigeons, however, a tweet in the 21st century has the potential to literally end the whole goshdarn world.
Cool. Great. Fantastic. Terrific. Awesome.
A last note: It’s quite possible that the @POTUS account already violated the Presidential Records Act. But who cares about a little bird poop on your windshield when your brakes are out and your car is accelerating in preparation to Thelma and Louise itself off the nearest cliff?
