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Trump says media is trying to stop him from tweeting

Commentary: In a morning tweetstorm, the US president says his tweets are unfiltered honesty. And that, presumably, is what the media doesn't like.

Chris Matyszczyk
2 min read

 Technically Incorrect offers a slightly twisted take on the tech that's taken over our lives.


Donald Trump Announces Air Traffic Control Reform Initiative At White House

The president believes the media is trying to stop him from communicating.

Mark Wilson / Getty Images

President Donald Trump's Twitter account has become the most famous in the world.

The instant connection between his mind and fingers has offered a unique insight into how (and what) a president thinks on a daily basis.

The US president, however, is concerned the media wants him to stop tweeting.

Among a Tuesday morning barrage of Trump tweets was this: "The FAKE MSM is working so hard trying to get me not to use Social Media. They hate that I can get the honest and unfiltered message out."

I feel somewhat confident that there isn't a member of the media -- fake or otherwise -- who wishes that the president would stop tweeting. Most presidents say very little that hasn't been varnished by a team of lawyers and buffed by at least a couple PR people. 

Trump's tweeted chronicle is a never-ending source of stimulation. Indeed, CNN's Jake Tapper tweeted in response to the president: "Fact Check: MSM eat up his tweets like Skittles. It's WH advisers, lawyers and Trump supporters who want him to stop tweeting."

Indeed, while media people taste the rainbow, I fear that White House insiders have only a slightly metallic taste in their mouths as they read the latest Trump musings. Indeed some have, reports say, privately expressed their fear that Twitter will be the president's undoing.

The White House didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

One example of his tweets perhaps getting in the way of his administration's intentions occurred this week. The president has repeatedly referred on Twitter to his travel ban from six Muslim-majority countries -- one vigorously opposed by the tech industry -- as being, indeed, a travel ban. Department of Justice lawyers have been at pains to suggest to courts that it isn't a ban.

Even George Conway, a lawyer thought at one time to be joining the Justice Department (he's also the husband of Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway), tweeted on Monday that the president's tweeting isn't helping.   

Still, the president will surely continue to go on Twitter and enjoy the honest, unfiltered nature of the medium. His tweets are him. His tweets are news. They might, in some eyes, even represent policy. They seem for him to be cathartic, too. 

And when history looks back not just at the president, but at how technology opened up new forms of communication for us all, it will either admire our achievement or shake its head in rueful sorrow.

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