The Most Damaging Tweet Of Trump’s Presidency, According To A Harvard Professor
March 12 and April 15 were special days in Donald Trump's presidency: Of the 100 days that he's been in office, he tweeted on 98 of them. But not those two.
(And on April 7, his only post was a retweet of daughter Ivanka.)
Had he misplaced his phone on those days, or gotten a cramp in his typing finger? It's impossible to know — but fun to speculate.
So let's track the 45th president through the @realDonaldTrump Twitter feed and examine what might have caused his rare social media silences.
READ: Is Donald Trump Still Adjusting To His Presidential Role After Completing 100 Days?
On Sunday, March 12, media and public attention was focused on Trump's provocative and unproven claim — in a March 4 tweet — that the Obama administration had surveilled Trump Tower during the election.
“That was the most harmful tweet of his presidency,” Matthew Baum, a professor of public policy at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, told International Business Times.
The House Intelligence Committee was pressing Trump to offer evidence to support his claims. His Twitter stand-down may have been the result of advice to avoid drawing any further attention to the situation. Baum's speculation? Trump might have been persuaded by some version of the old adage, “When you’re in a hole, stop digging.”
That adage could also apply to Trump’s Twitter silence on Saturday, April 15, the day of the Tax Marches, with protestors in 200 cities demanding that the president release his own tax returns.
“I would imagine his advisers saying, ‘Don’t bring attention to this,’” Baum said.
Trump apparently couldn't resist weighing in the following day.
The 15th was also the day before Easter Sunday, and Trump was in Palm Beach, Florida, for the weekend. Perhaps Melania Trump was nudging her husband to put his phone down, for once.
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