Donald Trump is in the small minority of Americans who thinks Trump’s tweets are good – Washington Post

The Fix's Callum Borchers explains the years-long feud between President Trump and the hosts of MSNBC's "Morning Joe." (Peter Stevenson/The Washington Post)

Well allow @RealPressSecBot, an automated Twitter bot that takes President Trumps tweets and formats them like official White House statements, do the honors with the tweets Trump issued Thursday morning.

Yeah, you know, just the president of the United States getting mad at cable news pundits and then lobbing a stunningly personal insult at one of them. Its almost odd to still be shocked by a Trump tweet, but here we are.

Trump has, in the past, celebrated his Twitter account as a means of communicating to the country without the filter of traditional media. (In this case, I can assure the president that if hed made this comment to a reporter, it would have been reported without any editing.)

He has no choice but to tweet, he said in December.

Earlier this month, he declared that the media hates his tweets precisely because it allows him to share his honest and unfiltered words with the country.

But, interestingly, the media is one of the few groups in the country that actually supports his Twitter addiction. Not only because most members of the media suffer from the same affliction, but also because it offers a fascinating insight into the mental processes of an unusual political figure.

Most other Americans, though, are more skeptical.

A PBS NewsHour-Marist poll releasedWednesday asked respondents if they thought Trumps tweets were effective and informative or if they were reckless and distracting. Overall, 7-in-10 adults chose the latter description.

In no group even Trump supporters did at least half say the tweets were effective and informative. Even Republicans were about split between the two choices. More than a third of those who approve of the job Trump is doing in office think his tweets are a net negative.

More than half of whites without college degrees and evangelical Christians two groups at the core of Trumps base of support think his tweeting is a net negative. Only 1-in-5 Americans thinks his tweets are effective, a figure so low that its almost at Senate-health-care-bill levels.

Nearly every Democrat, unsurprisingly, and two-thirds of independents view Trumps tweets in a negative light.

Its probably true that Trump sees his Twitter account as a way of sharing his unvarnished thoughts with the world. For all the constraints of his new position, @realDonaldTrump is one of the few outlets he has to be himself, to riff on whatever strikes his fancy at the moment. (You cant have a giant rally in a red state every night, after all. Probably.) The Twitter account is not really about keeping the public informed, then. Its a pressure release valve. Its a way to keep the boiler from exploding.

It may, therefore, do Trump some good personally. It almost certainly doesnt do him much good politically.

Originally posted here:

Donald Trump is in the small minority of Americans who thinks Trump's tweets are good - Washington Post