Many people may have assumed that Donald Trump\u2019s loose-cannon approach to Twitter might soften as he got closer to his inauguration as president. But if anything it has become even more inflammatory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And according to the president-elect himself, that isn\u2019t going to change once he enters the White House. Why? Because it allows him to do an end-run around the \u201cdishonest media.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When the interviewers asked whether Trump was planning to give up his @RealDonaldTrump<\/a> handle on Twitter and use the @POTUS account that was used by President Obama, the president-elect said that he had no intention of giving up his account, which has about 25 million followers. Why? Because \u201cit\u2019s working,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As is often the case, Trump\u2019s views on the matter are somewhat difficult to parse because he speaks in sentence fragments, switching from thought to thought without completing one before moving on. This is a transcript of his actual comments:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Note<\/strong>: This was\u00a0originally published\u00a0at Fortune, where I was a senior writer from 2015 to 2017<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \u201cI\u2019d rather just let that build up and just keep it @realDonaldTrump, it\u2019s working \u2014 and the tweeting, I thought I\u2019d do less of it, but I\u2019m covered so dishonestly by the press \u2014 so dishonestly \u2014 that I can put out Twitter \u2014 and it\u2019s not 140, it\u2019s now 140, 280 \u2014 I can go bing bing bing and I just keep going and they put it on and as soon as I tweet it out \u2014 this morning on television, Fox \u2014 \u201cDonald Trump, we have breaking news.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n If you piece the fragments together, Trump is effectively saying that when he tweets something, it automatically becomes news and is reported by outlets like Fox (FOX) or CNN (TWX) as breaking news. The method thereby allows him to set the agenda directly, instead of having news channels decide what to report. Even Trump\u2019s own press secretary said he checks Twitter to see<\/a> what the news of the day will be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Trump expands on this point a bit in the interview, saying he can\u2019t rely on mainstream newspapers and other outlets to report what he says accurately. The president-elect also says that posting his thoughts on Twitter allows him to get his message out more quickly than the traditional format of putting out a press release or hosting a news conference, which he says is \u201ca lot of work.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Here\u2019s more from Trump during the interview:<\/p>\n\n\n\n If I tell something to the papers and they don\u2019t write it accurately, it\u2019s really bad \u2014 they can\u2019t do much when you tweet it and I\u2019m careful about, it\u2019s very precise, actually it\u2019s very, very precise \u2014 and it comes out breaking news, we have breaking news \u2014 ya know, it\u2019s funny, if I did a press release and if I put it out, it wouldn\u2019t get nearly \u2014 people would see it the following day \u2014 if I do a news conference, that\u2019s a lot of work.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n While Trump sees Twitter as a direct route to news headlines and reaching the people, others see his use of it differently. In the New York Times<\/em>, Amanda Hess<\/a> says that the format<\/a> \u201cprovides the veneer of populist connection without the hassle of accountability.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n From the sound of it, the Trump administration is going to be spending a lot less time<\/a> with the White House press corps and a lot more time pushing their message out directly. Welcome to the Twitter presidency.<\/p>\n\n
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