No one can stop debating about how Donald Trump won the presidential election. One theory is that his unconventional Twitter presence helped him snatch up the race, BuzzFeed News reports.
“He’s apparently a master at using it,” said Twitter board member Debra Lee at a Breakfast at BuzzFeed event. “He was able to use Twitter and to use social media to get around conventional media and not deal with having to buy time on media or deal with newspapers or whoever he didn’t like.”
A common issue with Trump’s tweets throughout campaign season was how carelessly he seemed to comment on things. Lee brought up the point that handlers will have to keep a close eye on him in January to prevent any greater misunderstandings through his tweets. Trump has already raised eyebrows since he won the election with his tweets—he angrily told the cast of the musical Hamilton to apologize for calling out his vice president Mike Pence at the show, for example.
The Theater must always be a safe and special place.The cast of Hamilton was very rude last night to a very good man, Mike Pence. Apologize!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 19, 2016
The cast and producers of Hamilton, which I hear is highly overrated, should immediately apologize to Mike Pence for their terrible behavior
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 20, 2016
He also tweeted Monday that those who burn flags should face the loss of their citizenship or a year in jail, despite two Supreme Court rulings making flag burning a protected form of speech.
Nobody should be allowed to burn the American flag – if they do, there must be consequences – perhaps loss of citizenship or year in jail!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 29, 2016
Lee definitely has a point, though. As absurd and off-the-cuff as Trump’s tweetstorms usually are, they allow him to convey his thoughts to an audience without any kind of filter or fact checking. He doesn’t have to face annoying challenges from journalists at The New York Times or The Washington Post when he can tweet out an opinion to millions of followers in seconds and have them believe everything he says.
Earlier last month, even Trump thanked social media for his win, USA Today reports. “I think it helped me win all of these races where they’re spending much more money than I spent,” he said in a 60 Minutes interview. The President-Elect, who believes he has about 28 million followers on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, also promised in the interview that he would be “restrained” in using his Twitter once he has been inaugurated into office.