Bucks students voiced their beliefs of President Trump’s ‘detrimental, uncensored, and improper’ twitter feed, echoing experts’ opinions that his online presence is more than just unhelpful.
“I feel his tweets are more harmful than helpful, because they’re typically detrimental and uncensored,” said 21-year-old, William Suh, a business administration major from Warminster.
‘Detrimental’ is the same word used by political experts and activists that have started calling Trump a ‘cyber bully’. This is not without evidence; in his first year in office alone, Trump insulted a staggering 425 people, places, and things. While ‘insulted’ can be deemed a biased term, even correspondents who traditionally supported the GOP are critical of his Twitter usage.
Nicole Wallace, the former communications director for President George W. Bush and a well-known strategist for other Republicans, called Trump out:
“When you attack a man for living an ordinary life in an ordinary job, it is bullying. It is cyberbullying. This is a strategy to bully somebody who dissents. That’s what is dark and disturbing.” – The New York Times
It’s not just Bucks students who are feel his tweets are, at the least, unnecessary. In November, The New York Times featured an article titled “What Do You Think of President Trump’s Use of Twitter?” which had insight from political experts and asked students to respond with their own opinions. The results ranged from ‘appalled’ to ‘hilarious’.
Bobby Quinn, 19, and an electrical and computer engineering major from Richboro thinks Trump’s twitter is improper, but should not be used as official records, even if they are spoken by the official president;
“I feel that President Trump’s tweets are incredibly immature and improper for a president. However, I admit that they are pretty funny to read, but they aren’t helpful. I feel that they should be taken with a grain of salt, and otherwise ignored. It [Twitter] is not an official enough platform for his messages to be displayed and taken seriously.”
Alexa Lipkin, 19, a political science major from Fairless Hills agrees to some extent. “I think twitter itself is beneficial, because it levels the playing field and regular people can communicate with the president. Trump abuses the Twitter platform though, and he represents our country and is doing so in a negative and unfiltered way. His verbiage isn’t even correct. I understand it’s 2018 but he’s the president, and he should spell ‘coffee’ correctly.”
Bucks’ very own political science and history professor, John Petito offered an opinion that could be a helpful hint to all Americans unsure of what they read.
“I think President’s Trump’s tweeting is unfortunate. I believe either domestically or in the international sphere, clarity, in communication is very important, and I believe in today’s world we have very little clarity as to what United States policy is,” Petito said.
With the prevalence of fake news in the media, it can be difficult to know what is true and what is false, especially with twitter mainstreaming communication between government officials and citizens. Only time will tell how Trump’s twitter will shape the nation in the next three years.