President Trump’s widely-followed Twitter account fired off an average of 36 tweets per week during his first 50 days in office, according to a recent review of the president’s social media activity.
Mr. Trump has taken to Twitter at least once a day since taking office, cranking out no fewer than 260 tweets from his @RealDonaldTrump account since his swearing-in, or roughly five posts per day — the same number of in-person press conferences he’s held following his January 20 inauguration, NBC News reported Friday after undertaking a review of the president’s personal Twitter account.
Given his current pace, Mr. Trump is slated to soon surpass his predecessor with respect to the number of tweets sent while in office. President Barack Obama tweeted from the official @POTUS account a total of only 352 times between May 2015 and the end of his term, NBC reported, averaging fewer than one tweet per day. Mr. Trump, by comparison, is currently on course to crack Mr. Obama’s tally before the end of the month.
While NBC’s report isn’t particularly earthshaking, it puts numbers on Mr. Trump’s ongoing and unprecedented use of social media, the likes of which has raised concerns among White House staffers and security experts alike.
Mr. Trump’s first daily tweet happens at an average time of around 8:22 a.m. ET, according to NBC, and at times has been proceeded by upwards of a half-dozen follow-up posts before noon.
Around 88 percent of the president’s morning tweets were sent from an Android device, though his afternoon posts were typically attributed to an Apple iPhone, NBC reported. A cursory review of the president’s post-inauguration Twitter activity indicates an Android is typically used for his unfiltered, early day Twitter tirades, while his more diplomatic, afternoon musings are attributed to an iOS device.
Mr. Trump “will go back to his Android, typically around 6:24 p.m. Eastern, and resume tweeting in the same vein as those early morning messages,” NBC’s report found.
Regardless of the hour, the president’s Twitter activity has alarmed individuals across Washington from the West Wing to Congress. Several of Mr. Trump’s advisers were reportedly “stunned” when the president accused Mr. Obama of spying on his campaign during a Twitter tirade last weekend, and Republicans and Democrats on Capitol Hill have raised concerns over Mr. Trump’s apparent use of an Android device due to its repercussions with regards to record keeping in addition to the inherent cybersecurity risks.
Indeed, the impact of Mr. Trump’s Twitter activity isn’t limited to the nation’s capital. Mr. Trump’s “most frequent negative or critical tweets” are typically followed by an uptick in the president’s disapproval rating, according to the report.
“I think that his use of social media in particular … is gonna be something that’s never been seen before,” White House press secretary Sean Spicer said prior to Mr. Trump’s inauguration.
“He can put his thoughts out and hear what they’re thinking in a way that no one’s ever been able to do before,” Mr. Spicer added.
The president’s @realDonaldTrump account boasted around 18 million Twitter followers as of Dec 2016. As of Saturday, he sported more than 26 million.
• Andrew Blake can be reached at ablake@washingtontimes.com.
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