U.S. President Donald Trump defended his regular use of social media, especially Twitter, saying that his tweets won him the White House.
In an interview airing on Sunday on “Fox Business Network,” Trump said that with his use of Twitter, he could bypass “unfair media coverage” and speak directly.
“Tweeting is like a typewriter — when I put it out, you put it immediately on your show,” he said, according to a transcript released by the network. “I doubt I would be here if weren’t for social media, to be honest with you.”
He called his social media accounts on Facebook Inc (FB.O), Twitter Inc (TWTR.N) and Instagram “a tremendous platform.”
“When somebody, says something about me, I am able to go bing, bing, bing and I take care of it.
The other way, I would never have got the word out,” he said.
Several times, Trump has been urged to cut back on his social media use. He acknowledged that even friends have approached him to slow down on his use of the social media platform
Trump is known to use social media especially twitter to attack political opponents and even media platforms he considers as biased.
He often sends out missive tweets in the early morning or late evening hours.
At times, Trump’s tweets have contained factual inaccuracies and personal attacks.
In March, for example, Trump asserted without evidence President Barack Obama had ordered Trump Tower in New York wiretapped – something Obama denied.
In September, the FBI and the Justice Department said in a court filing ”they have no records related to wiretaps as described” by tweets from Trump.
He recently excoriated NFL players for taking a knee during the National Anthem.
He also criticized Senator Bob Corker in a series of tweets prompting Corker to respond: “It’s a shame the White House has become an adult day care centre. Someone obviously missed their shift this morning.
White House chief of staff John Kelly said last week some have criticized him for failing to control Trump’s tweeting. “I was not brought to this job to control anything but the flow of information to our president,” Kelly said.
In July, Trump was sued in federal court by seven individuals whom he has blocked on Twitter. The Justice Department said the suit should be dismissed, arguing it “rests on the unsupported and erroneous premise that the president’s Twitter account is a public forum for First Amendment purposes.”
Trump joined twitter in 2009 and had since then tweeted 36,200 times. He follows only 45 twitter handles mostly family members and his businesses but he is followed by 40.9 million handles.
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