Let’s Try to Make Sense of Trump’s 50-Tweet Bender
President Trump tweeted 50 times over the weekend, posting 20 times on Saturday, and 30 times on Sunday. Between his first tweets on Saturday morning (clips of Lou Dobbs interviewing Diamond & Silk and a former ICE director) and his last on Sunday night (“MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”), Trump took his followers on a whirlwind tour of his feverish obsession with himself and the media. He praised his own accomplishments, mostly his Friday veto of a congressional resolution terminating his national emergency declaration, and those touting his resolve on cable news. At the same time, he railed against Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation, a Saturday Night Live rerun and the Radical Left Democrats, whom he accused of attempting to rig the 2016 election. On Sunday night, he retweeted a string of conspiracy theorists, capping an unhinged, two-day Twitter bender that would have been concerning if it came from your uncle, much less the president of the United States.
Here are some lowlights.
A hot and cold relationship with Fox News
The president’s feed makes it clear that he spent an overlarge part of his weekend planted in front of a TV tuned to Fox News. He tweeted a clips of Lou Dobbs describing the ceremony during which Trump vetoed the congressional resolution to terminate his national emergency declaration as “emotional” and “stirring”; of various Fox News programs bashing the Justice Department for how it handled the investigation of Hillary Clinton’s emails; and of the sheriff of Bristol County, Massachusetts, praising the president’s commitment to “protecting the people of this country.” All standard stuff.
But Trump also went after the network for removing Jeanine Pirro from the air Saturday night. A week earlier, Pirro suggested that Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) is un-American because she is a Muslim who wears a hijab. The comments were condemned by Fox News, which ultimately decided to suspend her program, Justice With Judge Jeanine. The president was not happy. “Bring back @JudgeJeanine Pirro,” he wrote Sunday morning. “The Radical Left Democrats, working closely with their beloved partner, the Fake News Media, is using every trick in the book to SILENCE a majority of our Country.”
To drive his point home, Trump deployed what is essentially his mantra in life. “The losers all want what you have, don’t give it to them,” he added. “Be strong & prosper, be weak & die!”
….must stay strong and fight back with vigor. Stop working soooo hard on being politically correct, which will only bring you down, and continue to fight for our Country. The losers all want what you have, don’t give it to them. Be strong & prosper, be weak & die! Stay true….
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 17, 2019
A few hours later, he attacked two of the network’s midday hosts, Arthel Neville and Leland Vittert, ostensibly for criticizing the president’s national emergency declaration.”Article one [of the Constitution] clearly says the power of the purse is with Congress,” Vittert said on Sunday. “If all of a sudden you’re using executive action and emergency powers to move that funding around, how is that not changing law?”
Were @FoxNews weekend anchors, @ArthelNeville and @LelandVittert, trained by CNN prior to their ratings collapse? In any event, that’s where they should be working, along with their lowest rated anchor, Shepard Smith!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 17, 2019
He added a barb against Shepard Smith, another Fox News anchor who has developed a reputation for questioning the president’s decisions. It’s not enough that Fox News has twisted itself into a propaganda arm for Trump. The network learned over the weekend that its most loyal viewer demands complete capitulation, and that even the slightest hint of dissension amounts to a betrayal.
A bizarre obsession with late-night comedy
Trump is not a fan of Saturday Night Live, which routinely lampoons the president as a clueless moron. Same goes for late-night talk shows, which have drawn the president’s ire in recent weeks, for some reason. On Sunday morning, he suggested that late-night comedy programs are colluding with Democrats and Russia to make the president look bad, and that the Federal Election Commission and the Federal Communications Commission should investigate the matter. The nation long ago accepted this as normal behavior from the president.
It’s truly incredible that shows like Saturday Night Live, not funny/no talent, can spend all of their time knocking the same person (me), over & over, without so much of a mention of “the other side.” Like an advertisement without consequences. Same with Late Night Shows……
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 17, 2019
….Should Federal Election Commission and/or FCC look into this? There must be Collusion with the Democrats and, of course, Russia! Such one sided media coverage, most of it Fake News. Hard to believe I won and am winning. Approval Rating 52%, 93% with Republicans. Sorry! #MAGA
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 17, 2019
It’s unclear if the president realized Saturday Night Live aired a rerun on Saturday.
No lie is too ridiculous
Winning the 2016 election wasn’t enough for Trump; he needs to have won despite what he wants people to believe was an illegal campaign by Democrats to keep him out of office.
What the Democrats have done in trying to steal a Presidential Election, first at the “ballot box” and then, after that failed, with the “Insurance Policy,” is the biggest Scandal in the history of our Country!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 17, 2019
There is absolutely no evidence that Democrats did anything to “steal” the election, in any way. The mention of the “ballot box” is likely a reference to Trump’s oft-repeated claim that Democrats engaged in voter fraud, and that millions of people either voted multiple times or committed some other form of fraud to prevent him from winning the popular vote. Claims of such voter fraud have been thoroughly debunked. The “insurance policy,” is a reference to the various investigations into the Trump campaign’s relationship with Russia, which Trump believes is a massive conspiracy to discredit the 2016 election perpetrated by Democrats working in tandem with the Justice Department.
Though neither claim is new, many are concerned that Trump could be laying the groundwork to dispute the results of the 2020 election, should he lose.
Bashing a deceased war hero
Just as Trump is obsessed with denigrating Hillary Clinton, whom he defeated over two years ago, the president cannot seem to stop himself from attacking John McCain, who has now been dead for over six months. Trump hates the late senator primarily for his decision to vote against the administration’s half-baked plan to repeal the Affordable Care Act, and on Saturday he reminded his followers of the war hero’s indiscretion.
Spreading the fake and totally discredited Dossier “is unfortunately a very dark stain against John McCain.” Ken Starr, Former Independent Counsel. He had far worse “stains” than this, including thumbs down on repeal and replace after years of campaigning to repeal and replace!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 16, 2019
A day later, he attacked McCain’s grades in college.
So it was indeed (just proven in court papers) “last in his class” (Annapolis) John McCain that sent the Fake Dossier to the FBI and Media hoping to have it printed BEFORE the Election. He & the Dems, working together, failed (as usual). Even the Fake News refused this garbage!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 17, 2019
As part of his testimony before Congress last month, Michael Cohen said that prior to the 2016 election, Trump told him to intimidate his former schools into keeping his transcripts private. Cohen provided Congress with a letter he sent Fordham University in May 2015, threatening to sue the school if his grades were to become public. Fordham later confirmed Cohen’s account.
Promoting conspiracy theorists
Running low on original content, the president on Sunday evening hit the retweet button 15 times in succession. Several of the tweets he retweeted belong to conspiracy theorists, and many of the tweets linked to dubious articles on sites with URLs like “ilovemyfreedom.org.” The profile picture of one account Trump retweeted features a reference to QAnon, a conspiracy theory whose adherents believe the Democratic party is controlled by a cabal of pedophiles who harvest the blood of infants. The danger of the president of the United States drawing these extremist accounts that trade in disinformation into the mainstream cannot be overstated.
Today, Trump retweeted:
1. A Pizzagate conspiracy theorist
2. A Qanon conspiracy theorist
3. A conspiracy theorist who believes the New Zealand massacre was a plot to limit gun rights
He's elevating the most unhinged, deranged voices
By tomorrow we'll forget it even happened
— Judd Legum (@JuddLegum) March 18, 2019
#MAGA
There was really only one way to cap the most unhinged tweeting spree of his presidency.
MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 18, 2019
May God help us.