Fifty-two tweets in 34 hours: How a Trump Twitter frenzy defined a weekend

By Ashley Parker March 24 at 8:00 AM

The first tweet came just after 11:50 a.m. last Saturday morning, and the final one landed at 10:04 p.m. the next evening.

What should have been a quiet weekend at home for President Trump — a small birthday gathering to celebrate his son, Barron, turning 13, and a Lenten service at the historic St. John’s Episcopal Church — instead mushroomed into a manic blur of frenzied, raging Twitter messages.

Trump tapped out 52 tweets in just 34 hours, marking his second-most prolific two-day stretch since becoming president — surpassed only by a 53-message flurry last fall focused largely on the arrival of Hurricane Florence.

Just as Franklin D. Roosevelt ushered in the intimate fireside chat through his mastery of radio, and John F. Kennedy skillfully manipulated the new medium of television, Trump has redefined presidential communication with his use of Twitter. The 45th president has deployed the social media platform to fire Cabinet members, belittle his rivals, rally his base, befuddle world leaders and entertain, or infuriate, the masses.

But what impact did his outburst last weekend really have? If a president hunkers down in the White House to tweet alone, how much does it matter?

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https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/fifty-two-tweets-in-34-hours-how-a-trump-twitter-frenzy-defined-a-weekend/2019/03/23/3bed256c-4bf0-11e9-93d0-64dbcf38ba41_story.html