"You know, with all due respect, I think it freaks the mainstream media out that he has this following of over 45 plus million people that follow him on social media; that he can have a direct conversation," Spicer said. "He doesn't have to have it funneled through the media."
According to Spicer, Trump will "absolutely" continue to use his Twitter even after he moves into the White House, despite Trump's statements that he is going to be "very restrained" about his Twitter use after inauguration.
"You know what? The fact of the matter is that when he tweets, he gets results," Spicer said.
Twitter became a potent weapon for Trump during his presidential campaign last year. Most of the US mainstream media wrote off or took pleasure in mocking the Republican candidate (which gave outlets like Sputnik a lot of uncovered topics to write about), so Twitter became Trump's platform of choice for communication.
With 18.4 million followers on Twitter and 45 million on social media overall, his social media impact was apparently big enough to compensate for the lack of positive media coverage.
On December 31, Trump has posted a tweet of New Year congratulations, including those to "[his]many enemies who have fought [him] and lost so badly they just don't know what to do."
Happy New Year to all, including to my many enemies and those who have fought me and lost so badly they just don't know what to do. Love!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) 31 декабря 2016 г.
According to Rep. Chris Collins, a New York Republican who was the first member of Congress to endorse Trump, "Trump has his own way of communicating with America." At the end of the day, this way of communicating, if unusual, has proven to be quite successful.
