Advanced Essay #3: Trump's Twitter. Enough Said.
Introduction
When I first thought about what my topic should be, my mind immediately went to social media. What's one of the biggest social media platforms? Twitter. And who spends so much time on Twitter? Donald Trump. I always believed that Trump wastes his time posting and that he should spend more time actually being a president. In my essay, I wrote about two very controversial posts from over the past year and analyzed how Trump's tweeting has affected the nation now and in the future. The word count, however, is a bit higher than it should be, even after trimming it down without leaving anything out. I always ended up adding more.
Advanced Essay
Words are important. They are arguably the strongest tool mankind has created. They are strong enough to carry information and open people’s minds. That’s why writing is important. People use writing to convey their ideas, to explain and interpret the world around them. Writing can come from many different things and from many different backgrounds. It’s truly an amazing concept. It’s just when one abuses writing that it gets bad. President Trump takes writing and language with a grain of salt. Instead of being a responsible president like he should be, he spends his days writing 140 (and now 280) character messages.
If there’s anything that President Trump is known for, it's his Twitter account. It’s something that most people just love to hate and, in some ways, serves as a shrine for Trump’s supporters. Ever since he was inaugurated, and even before, his Twitter has been one of the most discussed and reported topics in politics. It’s just so...random! One can find literally anything on his page - comments, roasts, criticism, racism, official political decisions, everything. Twitter has evolved so much over the course of Trump’s first year in office, that people have several different views on it, and he has shocked the nation time and time again with the posts.
The Transgender Military Post - July 26, 2017
In a series of tweets, Donald Trump announced that the military would no longer accept transgenders. He claimed that the “tremendous” medical costs would disrupt the military and keep it from achieving its goal: decisive and overwhelming victory.
These posts surprised several thousand people. However, its effects were delayed until January 1 of this year. As one could imagine, Trump received overwhelming applause for the bill’s release from his supporters, and equally sparked protests and resistance from Democrats and even some Republicans. The opposers claimed that the military shouldn’t be discriminating against anyone because everyone just doing the same thing: helping to protect America. “Transgender people are people and they deserve the best we can do for them.” - Sen. Orrin Hatch. The huge medical cost excuse was over exaggerated as well. There’s plenty of other things that military puts a lot into, like Viagra, for instance, as The Washington Post writes. They reported that medical care for active transgender soldiers costs between $2.4 million and $8.4 million annually, whereas total spending on “erectile dysfunction” amounts to $84 million.
The “Covfefe” Post - May 31, 2017
Rewind to May 31, 2017. President Donald Trump posted a tweet that caught the entire nation’s attention. Let’s just say that he invented a word:
“Despite the constant negative press covfefe”
That’s it.
That’s the entire post.
At a first glance, this tweet looks completely ridiculous. You just look at it with a blank stare of surprise and confusion. Like most of Trump’s tweets, this one made the news but received a lot more attention than others. There wasn’t really much to report on, though, since no one really knew what the sentence meant. All anyone could do was think and speculate about what Donald Trump was saying, er, tweeting.
On one hand, the covfefe post was rather bewildering and completely out of nowhere. It made no sense to anyone at all, which is alright compared to most of the things Trump does. He often makes no sense. However, on the other hand, everyone, supporter, and non-supporter scrambled to find out what exactly “covfefe” meant, and the two groups even worked together in some cases. So, in a way, this tweet, as crazy as it was, united the country in a sense. This was definitely a surprising tweet, but it was one of the “better” ones, compared to the other trash Trump usually posts.
Something noticeable about Trump’s tweets and (mainly) his supporters is that they never really go into depth about anything, despite Twitter’s limitations. Whenever Trump makes an accusation or an announcement like the one above, no matter what, his supporters applaud him. However, when they’re asked “How?” or “Why?”, a true answer never arises. They’re always like “Yay! No more LGBT!” or “I know Trump would save us!” or they just flat out repeat whatever he says without a second thought. They have never ground for their claims and when they do, their response is usually vulgar and ridiculous, but their sources appear to always be an only be Twitter. It’s awful.
Bottom line, Donald Trump’s twitter account has been an essential part of his presidency, and his supporters. The posts make it obvious that he has absolutely no concern for people besides himself and others like him, fitting for a billionaire from Corporate America. Twitter themselves have debated about terminating Trump’s Twitter account, but it’s still there. I personally think the twitter account plays too much of a roll in media and politics. People shouldn’t have to cite a person’s social media to gain valuable information, especially when said information pertains to the well-being of the country. Imagine what people of future generations will have to do. They’ll have to live in a dysfunctional or even a destroyed economy. Kids will be doing literal research projects about Donald Trump. His tweets would be printed in textbooks! Donald Trump needs to start being the president he signed up to be and lay off of Twitter.
Sources
“Hatewatch.” Southern Poverty Law Center, www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/201.
Ingraham, Christopher. “Analysis | The military spends five times as much on Viagra as it would on transgender troops medical care.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 26 July 2017, www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2017/07/26/the-military-spends-five-times-as-much-on-viagra-as-it-would-on-transgender-troops-medical-care/?utm_term=.c3341a0dbe5f.
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