The problem with @realDonaldTrump

Amy McNeel

With millions of users worldwide, Twitter has become a pivotal public platform for world leaders, celebrities and regular people alike. One of these users is our president, who created the personal Twitter account @realDonaldTrump in 2009.

Today, this account has 39.4 million followers, and a cursory look over his recent activity reveals that he frequently tweets a handful of times a day, including 12 tweets Wednesday, Sept. 20, alone.

President Donald Trump’s tweets are filled with personal issues and beliefs, with professional tweets about policy and current issues sprinkled in between. With the ability to share such personal and unfiltered words on such a public platform, a question arises: Should the president of the U.S. use Twitter to communicate with the people?

There are many opinions in relation to this question, and to be perfectly honest, I think it could go either way depending on how the account is run. In the case of Trump, however, I do not think Twitter is an appropriate way to communicate with the public. Many of Trump’s tweets are insensitive and laced with anger; his account is filled with childish and unnecessary rants, his most recent target being the NFL and its players’ reactions to the National Anthem.

According to Kenneth T. Walsh, journalist for U.S. News & World Report, in his article “President Trump’s Dangerous Twitter Game,” most of the president’s rants not only carry a dismissive tone but also “go far afield from the issues that (he) says are his top priorities, such as creating jobs, cutting taxes and overhauling the healthcare system.” His focus on personal problems and views result in a very unprofessional environment.

Furthermore, Trump’s tweets often contain spelling and grammar errors. On numerous occasions, he has deleted tweets due to such errors and then later posted a corrected version. In such a public forum, the president should be communicating with proper and mature English. As the president, Trump should be representing our country in a professional and dignified way.

Overall, the way Trump runs his personal Twitter account is not an appropriate way to communicate with the people. However, the White House has an account, @POTUS, that was created in 2015 under President Barack Obama. This account stays with the White House and currently also represents Trump. This account is professional and includes only tweets about government affairs. It is an example of an appropriate means of communication. It does not go into personal beliefs or contain childish rants. If this were the only account Trump utilized, Twitter really would work in his favor.

However, it is evident that @realDonaldTrump is the account Trump favors. On Tuesday, June 6, he tweeted, “The FAKE MSM is working so hard trying to get me not to use Social Media. They hate that I can get the honest and unfiltered message out.”

If his goal truly is sharing honest and unfiltered messages, he has indeed met that goal. And if he conveyed these messages in a more professional and respectful way, Twitter really would be a great way for him to communicate. Yet, with 35.9 thousand tweets, he has shown an inability to represent our country in a way that is appropriate.

Trump is our president. He has a right to use Twitter, but he also has a duty to represent our country in a dignified way, and it’s about time he tweets like it.