You might find it hard to believe, but since Election Day Donald Trump actually has backed off a bit in how often he uses Twitter, plus he has softened the tone when he does tweet.
Yes, it’s true that since he won he has turned to Twitter to:
- Criticize specific companies and subsequently caused stocks to plummet.
- Challenge President Obama about his claim he would have won a third term.
- Dispute reports by U.S. intelligence agencies about Russia hacking.
- Argue with former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger about his poor ratings as host of the “Celebrity Apprentice.”
- Call actress Meryl Streep “over-rated.”
Still, when comparing Trump’s use of Twitter before and after his victory, his tone is much more mellow and the volume is far less. It’s a stark contrast considering his use of Twitter before the election was unmatched by any politician on the national scene.
During Trump’s highest usage days between October and early November, he tweeted up to 83 times a day. Since he won, however, the most he tweeted is 11 times in one day.
Since Trump became president elect, his tweeting time also changed. Before the election, his mostly tweeted late at night — likely because of a campaign schedule that offered him the most downtime after his nighttime campaign rallies. Now Trump primarily tweets between 7a.m. and 9 a.m.
Trump also is less likely to tweet directly at his challengers and mention them in tweets. During his campaign, he was notorious for citing his primary election opponents by name, as well as his Democratic challengers. He also often tweeted at establishment Republicans whom he viewed as lining up against him.
Following the election, Trump has infrequently mentioned many of these key opponents on Twitter. In fact, only Hillary Clinton has been mentioned, with Mitt Romney getting a shout-out for his congratulating Trump's win.
When it comes to direct tweets at those challengers though, Trump stopped completely.
Between Aug. 1 and Election Night, Trump tweeted at Clinton 49 times and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz once, but hasn't directly tweeted at any of the challengers from the list since his victory.
Now looking at Trump’s tweets specifically since the election, they fall into a number of distinct categories. The top two categories focused on his campaign victory, followed by tweets that we classified as “presidential.”
His campaign/promotion tweets were largely explanatory, such as one from Nov. 13 that stated, “The debates, especially the second and third, plus speeches and intensity of the large rallies, plus OUR GREAT SUPPORTERS, gave us the win!”
His “presidential” tweets included general statements such as thanking institutions such as the military and praising the United States. Or they were tweets about his plans as president. Many of these were specifically about his Cabinet choices, such as his tweet on Nov. 18 that said, “Will be working all weekend in choosing the great men and women who will be helping to MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”
The third largest category, however, is directed at news and media organizations such as a two-tweet-long rant on Jan. 5 that read, “The dishonest media likes saying that I am in Agreement with Julian Assange - wrong. I simply state what he states, it is for the people.... to make up their own minds as to the truth. The media lies to make it look like I am against "Intelligence" when in fact I am a big fan!”
Which shows that some things don’t change.
