No More 3 a.m. Rants: How Donald Trump’s Staff Finally Wrestled Twitter Away From Him
In the final days of the election, Donald Trump‘s 140-character social media posts have gotten noticeably tamer — and now we know why.
According to a Sunday report by The New York Times, campaign staff members have taken control of the Republican presidential candidate’s Twitter account in an attempt to keep him from another one of his infamous rants just before voters head to the polls.
“Aides to Mr. Trump have finally wrested away the Twitter account that he used to colorfully – and often counterproductively – savage his rivals,” the story states.
But that doesn’t mean the GOP candidate has softened his attacks behind closed doors.
“Offline, Mr. Trump still privately muses about all the ways he will punish his enemies after Election Day, including a threat to fund a ‘super PAC’ with vengeance as its core mission,” the Times reported.
Trump is now dictating tweets to staff members who are able to edit his comments, according to the newspaper, which also provided an example.
“On Thursday, as his plane idled on the tarmac in Miami, Mr. Trump spotted Air Force One outside his window. As he glowered at the larger plane, he told Ms. Hicks, his spokeswoman, to jot down a proposed tweet about President Obama, who was campaigning nearby for Mrs. Clinton,” they wrote. “ ‘Why is he campaigning instead of creating jobs and fixing Obamacare?’ Mr. Trump said. ‘Get back to work.’ After some light editing — Ms. Hicks added “for the American people” at the end — she published it.”
Over the course of his campaign, Trump has repeatedly gotten into hot water for his unfiltered and combative tweets. He’s taken aim at everyone from his opponent Hillary Clinton to former Miss Universe Alicia Machado, to varying degrees of controversy.
In stark contrast, most of the tweets on his official account in the past few days have focused on thanking supporters in the battleground states he has visited for campaign rallies.
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President Barack Obama mocked the 70-year-old real estate mogul on Sunday for being silenced on social media by his own staff.
“Apparently, his campaign has taken away his Twitter,” Obama said at a Clinton rally in Kissimmee, Florida. “In the last two days, they had so little confidence in his self-control, that they said, ‘We’re just going to take away your Twitter.’”
“Now, if somebody can’t handle a Twitter account, they can’t handle the nuclear codes,” he continued. “If somebody starts tweeting at 3 in the morning because SNL made fun of you, then you can’t handle the nuclear codes.”
