News

President-Elect Donald Trump reveals why he tweets more & he says it on Twitter

American President-Elect Donald Trump recently sparked a major controversy by revealing his talks with Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen as the move was perceived to be a violation of Washington's 'One China' policy. The episode soon led to a chain reaction with Trump and the Chinese exchanging virtual blows over the social media. Though Beijing has shown restraint on Trump's diplomatic outburst, that country's media and private citizens mocked Trump with one even saying he was "running the country with Twitter".

Trump's obsession with Twitter has not been slammed only on the foreign soil, either. Recently, the real-estate tycoon lashed out at a popular television show and an actor in it impersonating him and mocking him over his obsession with tweeting even 'in the middle of a key security meeting'. Trump might be feeling the heat generated by his over-tweeting as he remarked on Monday (December 5): "If the press would cover me accurately & honorably, I would have far less reason to "tweet." Sadly, I don't know if that will ever happen!" And his words were expressed via the same-old Twitter!

It is not that Trump is completely off the point. The way the New York tycoon had to make his way through the rabble-rousing by the mainstream media in this election year, one would expect little love fructifying between them now.

Peter Van Buren, a 24-year veteran of the State Department feels Trump's tweeting has pushed the press "closer to relevancy". In a commentary published in Reuters, Buren said: "President-elect Donald Trump discovered the Holy Grail of media relations: the ability with a 140-character tweet to ignore the Fourth Estate. This is brass-knuckled political power that at a minimum pushes the press another circulation drop closer to irrelevancy."

Trump has time and again slammed various media houses as well as journalists and these locking of horns has not been always one-sided. For instance, Trump unleashed a series of attacking tweets against CNN's Jeff Zeleny after he had called teh former a "sore winner" who had no evidence that he had lost the popular vote in the election of November 8 because of extensive fraud. Trump even took to retweeting posts by his supporters that aimed at CNN and Zeleny.

Trump's tweeting might look funny or offensive to many but there is certainly a method in his 'madness'. The mainstream media has not been able to beat the man's populist appeal which ultimately established him on the topmost podium and rather its own credibility took a hit after the 'underdog' ran away with the prize despite all major forecasts expecting his loss.


Real Time Analytics