Trump on Twitter: Outrageously Funny or Out of Control?

Trump recently tweeted a video of himself punching a wrestler edited to look like the CNN logo, which unsurprisingly caused a major scandal in the US, with critics decrying it as an out-of-control attack on the media while his supporters chuckle at how outrageously funny they think the whole thing is.

Trump’s been engaged in a long-running war with the Mainstream Media ever since the moment that he announced his candidacy roughly two years ago, and his weapon of choice has always been social media, in particular, Twitter.

Trump claims that this medium allows him to interact with his base directly and avoid what he claims to be the politically biased filters and misleading reporting of conventional information outlets such as CNN. The President has even asserted on numerous occasions that CNN and other Mainstream Media are “fake news”, and it was apparently in this context that Trump decided to tweet his provocative video when he used the hashtags #FraudNewsCNN and #FNN.

#FraudNewsCNN #FNN pic.twitter.com/WYUnHjjUjg

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 2, 2017

This controversial episode is the latest in the spree of scandals that Trump has started because of his Twitter habits, each one of which has been picked up and amplified by the Mainstream Media as they seek to twist his words in waging their war against him.

They and their mostly liberal supporters assert that Trump is completely out of control and that he’s denigrated the office of the presidency, constantly stooping to crude and uncouth levels below the dignity of his position. Some voices have even speculated that the instantaneousness of Twitter triggers Trump to blow off steam about whatever it is that he has in mind at any given moment, only to secretly regret it afterward once the moment has passed and he’s finally calmed down.

From the other side, however, Trump’s loyal followers believe that he’s outrageously funny and is a master at trolling the Mainstream Media, choosing the right topics to talk about and words to use in order to trigger conventional outlets into overreacting and further exposing their bias against him. His supporters are also thankful that the President has a direct avenue of communication with them, whether it’s to talk about serious issues or joke around like they interpret him as doing when he shared the edited video of him punching CNN.

Overall, the prevailing themes of the moment are the role of social media in contemporary governance and whether Trump is taking it too far.

Gerard Dailey, Political commentator, and Scott Gibbons, author of the book Trapped by History: the Remaking of America and Death of the Middle Class, and a blogger, commented on the issue.

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