The last weeks of Trump Twitter

Donald Trump’s presidency officially ended last week with the swearing-in of Joe Biden as the 46^th American president. President Trump skipped the event and, in his latest break from tradition, has not publicly acknowledged his successor.

Trump’s era was unique, and not just in the breaks of tradition.

Officially, it should have ended with the election on November 3, 2020. But in the days and weeks after, as thousands of mail-in ballots were tallied, President Trump opened a new chapter, one unprecedented in American history and that riveted the world, especially in countries that US leaders had previously called banana republics.

Overturn results

He tried to overturn the election results by publicly denouncing the outcomes in states where he had lost. His lawyers and supporters filed dozens of lawsuits that were mostly dismissed. He shone a spotlight on the mundane process of transmitting election results to the US Congress and telephoned and rebuked officials doing these duties.

Throughout these two months, he sent out a barrage of messages, averaging 23 tweets a day, repeating that he had won “big”, sharing claims of ballot stuffing, vote-switching machines, dubious video clips and a vast number of conspiracy theories.

All this culminated in his encouragement to a crowd of supporters to storm the US Capitol on January 6, where the ballots were being read out by Vice President Mike Pence.

Occupy building

Trump’s supporters forced their way into the chambers, a few minutes after legislators had been evacuated, and occupied the building for a few hours before they were chased out by military reinforcements.

Twitter and other media platforms, which had been treating him carefully for years, slapped messages on his tweets about “some of the claims here are disputed or misleading about the election”.

It was widely expected they would act firmly once Trump was out of power but his messages to incite supporters after January 6, led Twitter to permanently revoke is account.

Before his eviction, Trump, who had started his presidency with 12 million Twitter fans and had 88 million followers when his account was removed, had bragged that he could take his followers and start new media channels where he would not be censored.

Twitter was his home for a decade. It was an extension of his unpredictable nature. It was an extension of his thoughts to bypass media and reach his supporters.

Government officials were unaware of what to find and often woke up to find Twitter decisions that caused major shifts in government direction such as relations with Russia, North Korea, and Covid-19 responses.

Twitter firing

American Secretary of State Rex Tillerson cut short a trip to Nairobi to rush back to Washington. But before he got to his office, his aides told him he had been replaced with a tweet from the President.

Trump’s presidency has been characterised by numerous best-selling books about his administration. Some were by his sister Mary, Bob Woodward, John Bolton and former FBI Director James Comey, whose office also learnt of his dismissal on the President’s Twitter page.

In Rage by Bob Woodward, the author cites interviews where Jared Kushner, the president’s advisor, marvelled at how Trump effectively used Twitter: “If the president didn’t tweet it, it didn’t happen. You send out a press release and nobody cares. He puts out a tweet and it’s on CNN one minute later”.

In Kenya

The Trump Twitter effect is still growing around the world, even here in Kenya.

Government official and leaders are using their Twitter messages to communicate better. World leaders learnt that a tweet was the best way to quickly respond to Trump on issues like Covid-19 response and the Mexico wall.

While President Kenyatta took himself off social media in March 2019, Deputy President William Ruto, and other leaders have taken on online voices closer to how they speak at rallies.

As we go into a premature election season for the proposed referendum, some of their messages are misleading. But we do not have Twitter Police here to slap warnings on messages. Should we?