Trump’s year on Twitter mirrors uncertainty of his era

WASHINGTON, DC — During his first year in office, US President Donald Trump has upended norms of an American presidency, bringing his own brand of personal insult and argumentativeness to the office.

These features are right at home on Twitter, the social media platform Trump uses most frequently. Washington DC and capitals around the world watch his feed. Social media has transformed politics in the United States, much as radio and television did in the 20th century, and the unpredictability of Trump’s tweets are a reflection of the growing cloud of uncertainty that hovers over politics, media and culture broadly.

Meanwhile, for average people living outside the US, watching the leader of the most powerful military in the world make decisions on a social media site can be nothing short of terrifying.

Two segments of the American political class have had their professional worlds shaken by Trump’s use of Twitter: foreign policy makers and the media. For the foreign policy establishment, Trump has made a habit out of provoking leaders of other countries in unpredictable ways. According to a recent report in Newsweek, the secretary of state sifts printouts of Trump's tweets like tea leaves. 

For the media, Trump's posts consistently call reporters out when they displease him with what he considers fake news.

“I’ve had to put up with the Fake News from the first day I announced that I would be running for President. Now I have to put up with a Fake Book, written by a totally discredited author. Ronald Reagan had the same problem and handled it well. So will I!” Trump tweeted on January 7, referring to Michael Wolff’s tome Fire and Fury which describes a bizarre atmosphere in the White House.

In attempting to discredit Wolff’s book, however, Trump succeeds only in drawing attention to it.

“I think the most important thing that has changed is the president’s Twitter account has become one of the primary sources of news,” said David Faris, a political science professor at Roosevelt University in Chicago, who focuses on social media.

But Trump isn’t doing himself any favours.

“I think the president is doing enormous damage to himself and to the institution of the presidency by the way he is using Twitter with his unhinged attacks on particular individuals,” Faris added.

With low unemployment and a rising stock market, Trump’s approval ratings are some of the lowest for a president at this point in his office, at 40 percent according to polling site 538. Faris believes that people do not appreciate Trump’s clear inability to control his urge to lash out.

This unpredictability manifests itself in strange ways for the foreign policy establishment, who are used to being able to craft policy carefully by committee.

Bonnie Jenkins, a board member of the Arms Control Association and former ambassador for non-proliferation, told TRT World that Trump’s style on Twitter often undermined an age-old system of crafting policy by consensus.

“It has an impact overseas. It makes other countries unsure about the policies and whether departments are following those policies. It makes it very unclear for other governments what the US is doing what the US is saying,” Jenkins said. “The tweets are just part of the new aura of how he runs government.”

The most striking example of this disconnect between US foreign policy and Trump’s bluster online came this autumn, when Trump appeared to undermine his own top diplomat, Rex Tillerson, who was trying to deal with a burgeoning nuclear crisis on the Korean peninsula.

“I told Rex Tillerson, our wonderful Secretary of State, that he is wasting his time trying to negotiate with Little Rocket Man,” Trump tweeted October 1. “... Save your energy Rex, we'll do what has to be done!”

Negotiations have continued, but the disconnect between the president’s statements and the actions of his cabinet caused shock. 

“It’s made it difficult for the Secretary of State to do any kind of diplomacy,” Jenkins said.  “Countries are getting used to the fact that nothing is predictable anymore in the US.”

Unpredictability for media and the foreign policy establishment seems to have become the new normal.

“It was shocking at first,” Faris said of Trump’s Twitter feed. “And then it’s become so routine that people no longer realise how strange it is and how unfortunate it is.”