A presidential decree aims to applaud his supporters. Because on Twitter as an instrument of his politics and megaphone of conspiracy theories, he can hardly do without – especially not in the election campaign.
US President Donald Trump had flown to Florida to attend the launch of his new friend Elon Musk’s SpaceX mission in Cape Caneveral. The South African high-tech billionaire is just as unpredictable and unorthodox as the former real estate tycoon and one of the very few Silicon Valley company bosses who have sympathy for the man in the White House.
Facebook boss Mark Zuckerberg & Co., on the other hand, are “radical leftists” who control social networks and “suppress conservative voices” for Trump, as he just complained on Twitter. He criticized interference in the election campaign because Twitter recently provided @realDonaldTrump’s criticism of the allegedly manipulative postal vote with a fact check. Trump foamed.
Tropical storm “Bertha” and thunderstorms thwarted the premiere of the new space adventure that Trump had supported on Thursday night. And so the president flew back to Washington, where he had already been received by the front cover of the “Washington Post”, which was bathed in black Epidemic and an analysis of what went wrong.
Signature with a big gesture
Trump’s Twitter account, which was usually very active early in the morning, initially remained silent. After that, Trump only conspired about conspiracy theories about the alleged “Obamagate” in the Russia affair and criticism of Gretchen Whitmer, the governor of Michigan. He later paid tribute to the “sad milestone” in the dark Corona statistics before turning back to his small war against social media.
On the return flight from Florida in “Air Force One”, Trump had incited the conflict with the high-tech world in California’s Silicon Valley with new attacks. He threatened “big action”, with regulation and even closure of the portals, but without legal basis and handling. The congress had previously examined legal steps. Press spokeswoman Kayleigh McEnany announced a decree for Thursday to show the limits of social media – and a signature with a big gesture.
This is an expression of symbolic politics aimed at the applause of Trump supporters. Mark Zuckerberg warned the president of a reflex – and there was an undertone in it that he could regret measures. Because Trump has benefited the most from the permissive business model – and at the same time made Twitter popular. He freely used Twitter as an instrument of his politics and determined the agenda. As a megaphone during election campaign times, he can hardly do without it.
Twitter boss Jack Dorsey, by no means a Trump fan, never intervened until recently – there would have been reason enough. Kamala Harris, the democratic senator and top lawyer, even once called for the Trump account to be deleted.
(“Die Presse”, print edition, May 29, 2020)
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