Update That was fast: Donald Trump’s Saturday afternoon Twitter triple-play just became a foursome, with the oddest parsing of terminology since, well, the difference between “fake” and “fraud” 40 minutes ago: “My use of social media is not Presidential – it’s MODERN DAY PRESIDENTIAL. Make America Great Again!”
Previous President Donald Trump, one day into the July 4th long holiday weekend and two days into overwhelming criticism for tweeting about a facelift Mika Brzezinski didn’t have, just lashed out again at the “FAKE & FRAUDULENT NEWS MEDIA” for “working hard to convince Republicans and others I should not use social media.”
In a three-part (so far) tweet – see them separately below – Trump writes, “The FAKE & FRAUDULENT NEWS MEDIA is working hard to convince Republicans and others I should not use social media – but remember, I won the 2016 election with interviews, speeches and social media. I had to beat #Fake News, and did. We will continue to WIN! I am thinking about changing the name #FakeNews CNN to #FraudNewsCNN!” The last of these was briefly “pinned” to Trump’s profile page, making it as the top tweet any visitor would see.
Republican politicos including Paul Ryan and Ben Sasse didn’t need much encouragement from CNN or other news outlets to condemn the president’s crude, personal tweets about Morning Joe’s Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough. House speaker Ryan said about the facelift tweet, “Obviously I don’t see that as an appropriate comment,” while Sen. Ben Sasse tweeted, “Please just stop. This isn’t normal and it’s beneath the dignity of your office.”
Said Sen. Lindsey Graham, “Mr. President, your tweet was beneath the office and represents what is wrong with American politics, not the greatness of America.”
Exactly why Trump is parsing the difference between “fake” and “fraud” in his nickname for CNN went unexplained in this afternoon’s presidential Twitter triptych.
Here are the tweets:
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