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This article explains how the Presidents use of twitter has affected the news and the quality of information citizens receive.

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Victoria Giampa waves a Trump flag at a "Stop the Vote" protest outside the Clark County Election Department in Las Vegas on Thursday. (Mikayla Whitmore for The Washington Post)

President Trump will leave the White House with a massive social media following that he could use to shape the nation's politics throughout his successor's administration and beyond.

When Trump started his first campaign in 2015, he had just 3 million Twitter followers and 10 million on Facebook. But should Democrat Joe Biden's apparent electoral edge withstand legal challenge, Trump would leave office with a singularly powerful online megaphone - at least 88 million followers on Twitter, 31 million on Facebook and 23 million on Instagram - that will give him a unique ability to communicate his thoughts to legions of supporters accustomed to hearing from him more than three-dozen times a day.

It's a pace he could easily keep up as a private citizen looking to influence debates, mock opponents or help revive his flagging business interests, social media researchers say.

This power, honed and enhanced through two national campaigns and nearly four years as president, gives Trump the opportunity to do something rarely attempted by the men who previously held the nation's highest office - keep the national gaze fixed on himself as a new chief executive tries to command the national stage. It's something that could complicate Biden's stated goal of reunifying a nation fractured across regional, racial and partisan lines.

"There's no way that Donald Trump sits on his hands while Biden undermines his legacy," said Timothy Naftali, a New York University historian. "He is likely to be a fundamentally disruptive presence in American political life as an ex-president. And that is, once again, norm busting."

Trump also could remain a potent force for misinformation by continuing to undermine the election's legitimacy and sow doubt about the results in the minds of millions of people, researchers said. He has repeatedly railed against mail ballots and other elements of the national vote, making unfounded claims he has pressed with ever greater intensity as Biden mounted an apparent comeback in recent days.

Pinterest, LinkedIn, NextDoor deal with election disinformation

Trump did not concede Saturday, tweeting "I WON THIS ELECTION, BY A LOT!" at 10:36 a.m., about two hours before CNN and other news outlets called Pennsylvania for Biden.

In the days after the election, Trump's allies turned to Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and other social media platforms to echo and amplify these claims, often peddling misleading videos and other supposed evidence that independent fact-checkers have deemed false, prompting numerous actions by technology companies to label or remove the misleading claims.

Despite frequent complaints by Trump and his allies that technology companies are biased against him, the day after the election he had five of the 10 Facebook posts with the most English-language interactions - a category that includes retweets, likes and other user actions - according to data from CrowdTangle, an analytics tool.

His tweets, more than 32,000 and counting since he formally entered politics, continue to shape the news cycle, even as they increasingly get slapped with warning labels for violating Twitter policies against misinformation. Trump's misleading election night tweet claiming he had a "big win," well before the election was decided, for example, got 125,000 retweets before Twitter restricted it. Twitter also labeled his Saturday morning tweet.

The unseen machine pushing Trump's social media megaphone into overdrive

Trump may prove easier to ignore as a former president, at least by those who dislike his politics or his bombastic, truth-bending style. But judging by ballots cast in this election, the president's base of support is roughly 70 million Americans - a group so large that, if taken by themselves, would exceed the population of the United Kingdom, the world's 21st largest country.

"Whenever Trump leaves, he will leave with the biggest direct-to-supporter communications infrastructure in modern politics," said Philip N. Howard, director of the Oxford Internet Institute. "He'll be able to keep his supporters in an information bubble for an extended period well beyond the end of his public office. And he'll have a loyal and adoring audience for his political heckling and product placement - the ultimate distribution network for conspiracy, sensationalism, extremism and polarization."

The nation's first president, George Washington, set a standard of nonintervention by stepping down after two terms and retiring to his Northern Virginia plantation, Mount Vernon, despite growing rancor among his fellow Founding Fathers.

Many presidents have since taken more visible and vocal roles after leaving office, Naftali said. Theodore Roosevelt, for example, soured on his handpicked successor, William Howard Taft, and started his own political party. Roosevelt then ran unsuccessfully again for the presidency, in 1912, four years after initially stepping down.

But recent decades - in an era during which the power of television has made presidents akin to celebrities capable of reaching most of the nation with an immediacy once impossible - have seen former presidents of both parties largely step away from the political spotlight after leaving the White House.

Trump's predecessor, Barack Obama, didn't even open his own Twitter account until his second term but eventually built an even larger Twitter following than Trump's, accumulating 125 million followers. But Obama largely held his tongue on partisan politics until recent months, as this year's presidential campaign quickened. And Obama has never tweeted with anything close to the frequency or impact of Trump.

Trump's ability to command attention goes far beyond the mere numbers of followers he has on various platforms. Even his detractors agree the president has a rare skill at using Twitter to drive conversation with posts that are often harsh - even inflammatory - but hard to ignore. His rapid-fire style, complete with frequent capitalizations and the occasional spelling error, makes his voice hard to tune out.

Trump also benefits from the unrivaled enthusiasm of his followers, many of whom share his messages instantaneously by using software to automatically retweet him, researchers have found. Some use his Twitter feed as a primary source of their news, akin to having the television always on in the background, said Claire Wardle, U.S. director of First Draft, a nonprofit organization focused on addressing misinformation and disinformation.

"The networked infrastructure that the Internet allows, he has capitalized on that in an extraordinary way," Wardle said. "He has his megaphone, but he also has this network that takes his messages and distributes it in their own communities."

She pointed out that before the 2016 election, Trump had conversations with TV networks about having his own show. "But today he doesn't need Trump TV when he has the most powerful communication network at his fingertips," Wardle said.

Trump's early victory declarations test tech giants' mettle in policing threats to the election

When he leaves the White House, Trump will lose the extra leeway that Twitter affords world leaders, and Facebook may stop bending its policies to soothe criticisms from the president and his political allies. But even when that deference disappears, Trump will retain the ability to turn up the volume on his claims, even if he may have to become more cautious about how he makes them.

He has used his time in office effectively to grow his follower base tremendously. Trump's median number of retweets, which was 66 the month before announcing his candidacy in June 2015, has soared by nearly 30,000 percent, to 19,600 last month, said Darren Linvill, a social media researcher at Clemson University.

Trump and his campaign also built a formidable email list, with tens of millions of valuable names and email addresses, during his time as a politician. The Trump campaign has sent out more than 460 million emails seeking donations to support its legal fight related to the election since Tuesday, according to data compiled by Trevor Davis, chief executive of CounterAction, a D.C.-based digital intelligence firm. He said other politicians have used such lists to raise money for other candidates and exert influence after leaving office.

"An email list is a source of political power," Davis said.

Trump also has developed an echo chamber of supporters throughout the social media universe, including influential conservatives and countless ordinary supporters who respond to his messages and contend that hostility from mainstream news sources and tech companies could prevent his voice from being heard. An elaborate, well-developed network of far-right groups, such as the violent all-male Proud Boys and supporters of conspiracy theories such as QAnon, revere Trump and work to amplify what he says, online and off.

One critical test of whether Trump's megaphone will be as potent after he leaves office will be whether he can forge the same close alliance with Fox News that he enjoyed during his presidency, said Yochai Benkler, co-director of the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University and an expert on the news media and misinformation. Fox pundits have consistently repeated White House talking points, as has the news side of Fox, Benkler said, giving significant credence to and amplification of Trump's messages.

As a conservative Twitter user sleeps, his account is hard at work

Another issue will be whether Trump tries to capitalize financially on his audience in the months ahead, Benkler said. He suggested Trump could go into competition with Fox if he doesn't regain the same level of support following a bruising election in which the president and his allies criticized the network for its polling and its election-week declarations about which states had been won by Biden.

So far, he said, the news network has shown "restraint," in its coverage of the Trump campaign's allegations of voter fraud and attempts by Democrats to steal the election. "But I'm not sure it will hold," he said.

Updated November 8, 2020

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Trump's power on Twitter, Facebook will outlive his presidency

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Trump's power on social media gives him the opportunity to do something rarely attempted by the men who previously held the nation's highest office - keep the national gaze fixed on himself as a new chief executive tries to command the national stage.

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This article explains the effect of the Presidents use of twitter in regards to security and foreign relationships.

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The statement "Let's Make America Great Again, Together" is prominent on the home page of WhiteHouse.gov. While the proverbial online language suggests collaboration, the nearest reference to community under the Trump administration directs visitors to a page focused on strengthening the nation's law enforcement.

Policy platforms do change with any presidential transition as the incoming administration advances its own agenda. Yet in the short time since President Trump has taken office, factions of civil society-the array of non-governmental organizations that have a presence in public life-have engaged in daily protests against a range of enacted and anticipated legislative and regulatory rollbacks. And the digital infrastructure that was designed to bridge civil society and government has been seemingly reduced to a unilateral platform for mass communication. Absent of two-way communication, current acts of civil disobedience will continue among segments of civil society that feel alienated from government.

The Internet as a Bridge to Civil Society

Whatever the era, presidential leadership has recognized the importance of engaging civil society in its entirety. In 1947, Harry S. Truman was the first president to address the NAACP, the nation's leading civil rights organization. Less than 10 days after taking office, George W. Bush gathered religious leaders to launch his conservative faith-based initiative.

During the Obama presidency, from the campaign trail to the White House, the internet transformed mass communication between government and citizens. As the first " social media president," Barack Obama sent his inaugural tweet as @POTUS in 2015 that was soon followed by Twitter engagements from the First Lady of the United States, @FLOTUS and other key staff. Obama was also the first leader to go live on Facebook, use a filter on Snapchat, deliver his weekly national address on You Tube, and share photos on Instagram.

The Trump administration inherited all of the White House's technology assets, including official social media handles, as part of the digital transition. The administration also inherited a revamped WhiteHouse.gov, which now includes a blog feature, RSS feed, and email list. Former White House staffers transferred to the current administration the We the People platform where 12 million verified users have created 470,000 petitions to the government since 2011.

To create a space for the current administration, the digital footprint of the Obama administration was erased from WhiteHouse.gov, with existing content transferred to the National Archives and Records Administration that maintains all presidential communications under the Presidential Records Act of 1978.

Hundreds of pages of online content representing the diverse constituencies, communities, and organizations active under Obama disappeared from WhiteHouse.gov within hours after the inauguration. The Spanish-language translation feature on WhiteHouse.gov was disabled, making the online site only accessible in English (the handle @LaCasaBlanca was recently activated on Twitter). And as expected, swaths of policy issues addressed during the last eight years were removed, most notably those referencing civil rights, environmental justice, community policing, criminal justice reform, wage inequality for women, STEM, and initiatives on Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), African American males and LGBTQ issues.

While the We the People platform remains active, the current web site provides little to no description of who constitutes civil society under Trump and demonstrates even less engagement with civil society groups in his official capacity (unless one considers his post-election thank you tour). Moreover, President Trump's daily online activity has alienated, rather than included citizens - especially those in disagreement with both his policies and opinions.

The Dangers of the Twitter Megaphone

Similar to his predecessor, President Trump is not a novice to social media. In 2009, he joined Twitter as the @realDonaldTrump with a following that has grown from 3 million to nearly 25 million supporters at last count. Trump's popular Twitter account has generated nearly the same number of tweets as @WhiteHouse under Obama (nearly 34,000).

Trump's use of technology, however, has baffled other domestic and global leaders, the media, and the public. In the capacity of president, his Twitter communications have berated international allies - most recently Australia and Mexico. He's taken to Twitter to threaten a city government and public institution. In what could be considered clear abuse of power, Trump's tweets have endorsed companies such as L.L. Bean and expressed annoyance with Nordstrom over discontinuing his daughter's clothing line.

The list continues. Federal Judge James Robart was the latest target of the president's egregious online rants when he was depicted as a " so-called judge " after Robart issued a temporary restraining order for Trump's travel ban.

These and other exhaustive "twitter moments" have become daily barrages of personal messages on the president's potentially unsecured mobile device. All of these online engagements have positioned social media as the president's megaphone to amplify personal grievances against those that dare to deviate from the administration's priorities.

Even federal agencies have not been immune from this new normal approach to mass communication. Despite the Obama administration removing the block on federal agencies to use social media in an official capacity in 2009, the current White House has reprimanded and in some instances, censored federal agencies that deviate from the policies and personalities of its leadership. The National Park Service was directed to delete debatable tweets that referenced the size of Trump's inaugural crowds, shortly before the U.S. Department of Interior temporarily disabled the agency's account. The Environmental Protection Agency was instructed to curb their social media exposure by not posting new information and deleting all climate change references from its current web site.

U.S.-Civil Society relationships: What Trump Can Learn from Past Leaders

The storms of online impulsivity along with the reported actions to censor public agencies not only call into question the administration's temperament toward opponents, but also its tolerance for the actors and agendas of those who broadly constitute civil society. The president is the leader of everyone, regardless of who voted for him.

Past presidents have had to engage all aspects of civil society, especially during the nation's most difficult times. Post-Watergate and in response to his perceived poor record on civil rights, Gerald Ford brought his views on domestic policy to African American organizations, such as the National Baptist Convention and at White House sponsored forums. In 1997, Bill Clinton was compelled to convene a new race initiative to discuss and potentially settle grievances around racial discrimination. After 9-11, George Bush sat down with Muslim citizens and in one speech at the Islamic Center in Washington, D.C. reminded them that "[w]e are a great country because we share the same values of respect and dignity and human worth."

In his final year in office, Barack Obama invited leaders of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement to the White House to address criminal justice reform in the wake of police brutality. BLM activist Deray McKesson tweeted about that meeting from inside the executive office.

In the next four years, President Trump should glean from his predecessors that citizens and their organizations are not just spectators to government. In doing so, he might become less of an online demagogue and more of a peacemaker (or at best, a negotiator) that is willing to confront civil society concerns. He might also retreat from censoring federal agencies from keeping the public informed about their programs and services. Instead of restricting communication, the administration should establish a principled and responsible framework for an agency's use of social media, especially with the emergence of rogue and parodied Twitter accounts posing as government entities.

More importantly, the president's should be reminded that his online legacy will not be erased. All of his online communications-even those from his personal account are auto-archived and curated under the Presidential Records Act (even those manually deleted tweets).

In the end, modern era technologies can strengthen connections within democracy and given the president's expertise with new media, the administration may want to leverage the medium to build more bridges than walls to civil society.
The author would like to acknowledge the research and editing help that Jack Karsten and Cathy Howell provided for this post.

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How the president's Twitter account affects civil society

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The statement "Let's Make America Great Again, Together" is prominent on the home page of WhiteHouse.gov. While the proverbial online language suggests collaboration, the nearest reference to community under the Trump administration directs visitors to a page focused on strengthening the nation's law enforcement.

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The presidents social media use has done much more harm than good for the country. His tweets have ruined relationships with foreign countries and have divided people through his strong political beliefs. 

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The presidents social media use has done much more harm than good for the country. His tweets have ruined relationships with foreign countries and have divided people through his strong political beliefs. 

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so i agree he has divided the country with his tweets and with his words and his tweets have done harm for the country and made people have distrust in the government and other agencies that are connected to it.