WASHINGTON (AP) – @realDonaldTrump, the Twitter stream that grew from the random meditations of a reality TV star in the mouth of an American president, has died. He wasn’t even 12 years old.
The provocative hand was born by a real estate tycoon from New York who used it to help him become the 45th American president. It began with a tweet on May 4, 2009, promoting Donald Trump’s upcoming appearance on David Letterman’s show.
He died more than 57,000 tweets later, with Trump using some of his final posts on the powerful platform to compensate with a pro-Trump mob that besieged Congress halls in a deadly assassination while lawmakers were ready to certify his defeat.
The account fulfilled its death when Twitter announced on Friday that it was permanently plugging @realDonaldTrump, citing concerns that Trump would use it to “further incite violence.” Trump replied that “he will build our own platform in the near future. We will not be SILENT! “
Trump, a novice politician but an experienced salesman, realized the power of social media in ways that few other politicians have done. And he handled it with unprecedented power to diminish his opponents, shape choices and shape reality – at least in the eyes of his supporters.
At first, @realDonaldTrump seemed pretty innocent. Its owner, who had prolific experience in marketing casinos, real estate and even Oreos, used the platform mainly to promote his books, media appearances and to offer friendly plug-ins.
But as Trump began to play seriously with a run in the White House, he became an instrument to burn his opponents and shape his nationalist “America First” philosophy.
He treated his venom equally, whether he insulted the enemies of celebrities (Rosie O’Donnell was “rude, rude, tiring and dumb”) or used xenophobia to malign a country (Britain “is trying hard to and mask their massive Muslim problem ”).
Peter Costanzo, then director of online marketing for the publishing company that publishes Trump’s book, “Think Like a Champion,” helped bring Trump to the platform.
Back then, Twitter was still in its infancy. But Costanzo, who later came to work for The Associated Press, saw the 140-character message platform as a new tool that the real estate mogul could use to boost sales and reach a wider audience.
Costanzo was given seven minutes to present his pitch to Trump – “Not five minutes, not 10,” he recalled in a 2016 interview.
Trump liked what he heard.
“I said, ‘Let’s call you @realDonaldTrump – you’re the real Donald Trump,'” Costanzo said. “He thought about it for a minute and said, ‘I like it. Let’s do it.'”
Except for Trump’s family, no one seemed out of bounds on his Twitter rage. Trump has attacked Republicans in the Senate, Democrats in the Senate, political rivals in 2016, current administration employees, former members of the administration, the Republican Party and cable networks.
@realDonaldTrump was prolific: in the days when its owner was particularly agitated, such as in the middle of prosecution proceedings, he issued more than 100 tweets.
In his most popular tweet, on October 2, 2020, @realDonaldTrump announced that Trump and First Lady Melania Trump contracted the coronavirus. The post received 1.8 million likes and nearly 400,000 redistributions, according to Factba.se., Which follows the president’s habits and comments on social media.
The account was used to announce layoffs. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson learned of his expulsion in a tweet.
The account threatened the opponents in the most colorful terms. Before Trump “fell in love” with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un by secretly exchanging letters, Trump used Twitter to call him a “rocket man” and vowed to respond with “fire and rage” if the authoritarian dared to attack. United States.
@realDonaldTrump has frequently spread misleading, false and malicious claims, such as unfounded ideas that protesters at Judge Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearings were paid by liberal philanthropist George Soros and that the November election was attacked by voter fraud.
Trump wrote many times around midnight and before dawn, a cathartic outing for grievances (Witch Hunt! Crooked Hillary, Russia, Russia, Russia, FAKE NEWS and so on.) For the most part, @realDonaldTrump and his 280-character posts effectively allowed Trump to work around the Washington media and amplify the Allied message.
Sometimes @realDonaldTrump stumbled. Trump deleted 1,166 tweets and, in his last months on the platform, had 471 tweets reported by Twitter for misinformation, according to Factba.se.
In one of the most memorable setbacks on Twitter, Trump, in May 2017, sent (and later deleted) a cryptic tweet after midnight that read “Despite the constant negative covfefe of the press.”
Gâlgâia set Twitterverse on fire with speculation. Theories included that the tweeter-in-chief had fallen asleep in the middle of the message and that the man bragging about the “best words” was adding a new word to the lexicon to properly describe the collusion between Democrats and the press.
The mystery has never been solved.
Sam Nunberg, a longtime and former Trump adviser, said that in the summer of 2011, after Trump announced he was not running in 2012 but wanted to remain relevant, his team decided to start using social media to -increase your profile.
They chose to focus on Twitter, where he already had an account and several hundred thousand followers. Nunberg remembers sending Trump daily reports on the growth of his followers. Sometimes Trump hands it to him with handwritten notes – “Why not more?” “Why so slow?”
They celebrated when they reached millions.
“Twitter has certainly played a key role in building Donald Trump as a political figure in Republican politics, and he’s also enjoyed it a lot,” Nunberg said. “Remember, he used to say, ‘I wanted to own a newspaper. It’s wonderful, it’s like a lossless newspaper. “
Trump’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., joined Twitter shortly after the platform banned @realDonaldTrump from noticing that it continues to allow Iran’s supreme leader “and many other dictatorial regimes” to use the platform. but he cannot respect his father.
“Mao would be proud,” mocked Trump Jr.
Finally, @realDonaldTrump provided an instant look at Trump’s mood for more than a decade, a time when TV star “The Apprentice” became the 45th American president.
Along the way, as historians look for a glimpse into Trump’s thoughts on the issues of his time – anything from actress Kristen Stewart’s treatment of co-star Robert Pattinson to the president’s views on Russian meddling in the 2016 election – the first stop may be inevitably be one of the many digital archives that have kept the tweets @realDonaldTrump.
With Trump, no matter the subject, there’s always a tweet for that.
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Associated Press writers Julie Pace, Nancy Benac and Zeke Miller contributed to the reporting.