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Twitter has new rules, and he applied them to Trump 1:54
Washington (CNN) - United States President Donald Trump will announce a decree on Thursday against social media companies, White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany told reporters aboard Air Force One in the flight back to Washington after NASA's aborted launch of SpaceX.
McEnany did not specify what the decree would include, but it represents the most significant step the president has taken in his war with tech companies as they fight to balance freedom of expression with the growing problem of disinformation.
On Tuesday, Twitter applied a data check to two of Trump's tweets, including one that falsely claimed that ballot-by-mail ballots would lead to widespread electoral fraud. Trump immediately responded, accusing the social media giant of censorship and warning that if he continued to tag his posts, he would use the power of the federal government to slow it down or even shut it down.
LOOK : Twitter tags Trump tweets with warning of misleading or disputed information
It is unclear what restrictions the president could apply to social media companies through a decree. Still, the move raises the stakes in Trump's battle with Silicon Valley, and highlights what he believes to be a fight worth having. In many ways, the latest episode on Twitter fuels Trump's narrative that there are powerful media forces aligned against him, and that this is the only voice his followers can trust.
"This plays directly in favor of President Trump's hand of cards," said Jason Miller, communications director for Trump's 2016 campaign and someone who has been directly involved with Trump's social media strategy. "They basically gave him a huge gift."
Many of Trump's political allies rushed to his defense on Wednesday.
"Twitter is participating in the 2020 election interference. They are putting a thumbs up," said Florida Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz, a loyal Trump supporter and substitute during an appearance on the War Room Pandemic podcast produced by Steve Bannon. . "The notion that they would outsource fact-checking to people who were wrong about everything is an insult."
Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale said his team no longer pays for advertising on Twitter and accused the tech giant of deliberately influencing the election to harm the president.
READ : Trump threatens to "regulate" and even "close" social networks after Twitter tagged his posts
"We always knew that Silicon Valley would do everything possible to obstruct and interfere with President Trump getting his message across to voters," Parscale said in a statement. "Partnering with biased bogus news media 'fact checkers' is just a smokescreen that Twitter is using to try to give its obvious political tactics some false credibility."
The president made the decision to warn Twitter despite the fact that the company and most other prominent social media platforms have allowed him and his supporters to sell unsubstantiated conspiracy theories with few limitations. While Twitter added fact-checking to Trump's tweets about voting by mail, it did not do so in any of his recent tweets, when he unsuccessfully suggested that MSNBC host Joe Scarborough was involved in some way in the death of one ex-assistant, despite a plea from her widower to download the tweets.
READ : Trump had another wild weekend on Twitter and this is why we should not normalize it
Trump's Twitter habits have been scrutinized for virtually his entire political career, but people familiar with his use of the platform describe less of a strategy and broader mindset when he or an assistant hears messages.
Other people within the administration, and even some of Trump's closest advisers, are regularly surprised by what appears in their feed, if not always.
While his messages often have the effect of distracting from an unfortunate media headline, people close to the president say his impression is that he really believes in many of the more conspiratorial things he sends out, including the discredited theories about his predecessor, and that he is not creating them just in the hope of diverting attention elsewhere.
Trump's top social media adviser Dan Scavino Jr. was recently promoted to become one of the highest-ranking officials in the West Wing. His title, deputy director of communications staff, belies the critical role he plays both in Trump's use of Twitter and in his life in general. Trump trusts Scavino almost without reservation. Scavino has worked for the president since before the 2016 campaign when he was a manager at one of Trump's golf clubs.
Scavino is usually the person who locates internet content, sometimes from marginal and often incendiary sources, that reaches Trump's Twitter feed, although other friends and advisers have also suggested tweets and retweets.
Scavino's west wing office provides him with regular access to the president, as does his almost ubiquitous presence on Trump's travels, where he is often seen videotaping or photographing the president. She is believed to be the only other person with access to @RealDonaldTrump, although the account mechanics have never been confirmed by the White House.
Trump's comments on Twitter have always been controversial. But recently, as the death toll in the United States from the pandemic reached 100,000, they have become uncomfortable even for some of the president's most prominent supporters.
LOOK : FDR: 100,000 dead in the US by covid-19 and not a tweet from President Trump
"I think the president should stop tweeting about Joe Scarborough in the middle of a pandemic," said Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyoming. "He is the commander in chief of this nation and he is causing great pain to the family of the young woman who died."
But those who understand the president's habits on social media believe that his behavior is unlikely to change anytime soon. Miller, who has been around as Trump draws his tweets, said the president sees the platform as an outlet where he can speak directly to his followers.
"He is one of President Trump's superpowers," said Miller. “He soon understood that social media, Twitter in particular, gave unfiltered access to the American people and their followers. What Trump maximized was the ability of social media to avoid the artificial conversation created by the mainstream media. "
