The provocation was created by a New York property tycoon who used it to help him become the 45th president of the United States. It all started with a tweet of May 4, 2009, promoting Donald TrumpDavid Letterman’s next appearance on the show.
He died more than 57,000 tweets later, with Trump using some of his final posts on the powerful platform to sympathize with a pro-Trump crowd that besieged the corridors of Congress as lawmakers prepared to certify his defeat.
The account ended when Twitter announced on Friday that it was permanently disconnecting the plug from @realDonaldTrump, citing concerns that Trump would use it for “further incitement to violence”. Trump replied that he would be “building our own platform in the near future. We will not be SILENCED!”
Trump, a novice politician but an experienced salesman, realized the power of social media in a way that few politicians have. And he exercised it with a power never seen before to diminish his opponents, shape elections and shape reality – at least in the eyes of his supporters.
At first, @realDonaldTrump seemed innocent enough. Its owner, who had extensive experience in marketing casinos, real estate and even Oreos, used the platform mainly to promote his books, appearances in the media and give friendly tokens to friends.
But when Trump started seriously playing with a White House executed, it became a tool to burn opponents and shape its nationalist philosophy, “America First”.
He used his poison equally, whether insulting enemy celebrities (Rosie O’Donnell was “rude, rude, nasty and stupid”) or entire countries (Britain is “trying to cover up its huge Muslim problem”).
Peter Costanzo, then director of online marketing for the publisher who launched Trump’s book, “Think Like a Champion”, helped bring Trump to the platform.
Twitter was still in its infancy at the time. But Costanzo, who later came to work for the Associated Press, saw the 140-character message platform as a new tool that the real estate mogul could use to increase sales and reach a wider audience.
Costanzo had seven minutes to make his presentation to Trump _ “Not five minutes, not ten,” he recalled in a 2016 interview.
Trump liked what he heard.
“I said, ‘Let’s call you @realDonaldTrump – you are the real Donald Trump,’ recalled Costanzo. “He thought for a minute and said, ‘I like it. Come on.’
Aside from the Trump family, no one seemed to be out of the bounds of his anger on Twitter. Trump attacked Senate Republicans, Senate Democrats, 2016 political rivals, current administration officials, former administration officials, the Republican Party and cable networks.
@realDonaldTrump was prolific: in the days when his owner was particularly agitated, like in the middle of an impeachment process, he sent over 100 tweets.
In his most popular tweet, on October 2, 2020, (at) realDonaldTrump announced that Trump and First Lady Melania Trump had contracted the coronavirus. The post got 1.8 million likes and almost 400,000 retweets, according to Factba.se., Which tracks the president’s habits and comments on social media.
The account was used to announce layoffs. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson learned of his expulsion in a tweet.
The account threatened opponents in the most picturesque terms. Before Trump “fell in love” with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un through secretly exchanged letters, Trump used Twitter to call him “rocket man” and vowed to respond with “fire and fury” if the authoritarian dared to attack the U.S.
(at) realDonaldTrump often spread misleading, false and malicious claims, such as the unfounded ideas that protesters at Judge Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearings were paid by liberal philanthropist George Soros and the November election was surrounded by electoral fraud.
Trump used to tweet well after midnight and before dawn, a cathartic escape valve for complaints (witch hunt! Crooked Hillary, Russia, Russia, Russia, FALSE NEWS and so on.) Mostly, (at) Donald Trump and his 280-character posts effectively allowed Trump to bypass the media establishment in Washington and extend the message of the allies.
Sometimes (at) realDonaldTrump stumbled. Trump deleted 1,166 tweets and, in his last months on the platform, had 471 tweets flagged by Twitter for misinformation, according to Factba.se.
In one of his most memorable stumbles on Twitter, Trump, in May 2017, sent (and then deleted) an enigmatic post-midnight tweet that read “Despite the constant denial of the cowardly press”.
The chatter ignited Twitterverse with speculation. Theories included that the chief tweeter had fallen asleep in the middle of the message and that the man who once boasted of having “the best words” was adding a new word to the lexicon to adequately describe the collusion between Democrats and the press.
The mystery was never solved.
Sam Nunberg, a longtime adviser – and now ex – Trump, said that in the summer of 2011, after Trump announced he was not running in 2012, but wanted to stay relevant, his team decided to start using social media to increase your profile.
They chose to focus on Twitter, where he already had an account and several hundred thousand followers. Nunberg remembers sending daily reports to Trump about the growth of his followers. Trump sometimes returned it with handwritten notes – “Why not more?” “Why so slow?”
They celebrated when they reached the million mark.
“Twitter definitely played a central role in building Donald Trump as a political figure within Republican politics and he also liked it a lot,” said Nunberg. “Remember, he said, ‘I wanted to have a newspaper. This is great, it’s like a lossless newspaper. ‘ ‘
Trump’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr, accessed Twitter shortly after the platform banned (at) realDonald Trump to note that he continues to allow Iran’s supreme leader “and several other dictatorial regimes” to use the platform, but cannot tolerate your father.
“Mao would be proud,” mocked Trump Jr.
In the end, @realDonaldTrump offered a sneak peek at Trump’s mood for more than a decade, a period in which the TV star “Apprentice” became the 45th American president.
In the future, when historians seek a glimpse of Trump’s thoughts on the issues of his time – anything from actress Kristen Stewart’s treatment to co-star Robert Pattinson to the president’s views on Russian meddling in the 2016 elections – the first stop may inevitably be one of the many digital files that have preserved @realDonaldTrump’s tweets.
With Trump, whatever the subject, there is always a tweet for that.