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The Public Is Growing Tired of Trump's Tweets, Says Voter Survey (arstechnica.com) 489

President Donald Trump is the tweeting president. His @realDonaldTrump handle has 31.8 million followers and "35K" tweets. While the president claims to use Twitter to "get the honest and unfiltered message out," many Americans aren't so fond of his favored form of communication. According to a new voter poll (PDF), the public is growing tired of Trump's tweets. Ars Technica reports: A Morning Consult, Politico survey published Wednesday found that 69 percent of voters who took the online survey said they thought Trump tweets too much. That's up from 56 percent from December, months before Trump took office. The survey said that 82 percent of Democrats polled thought Trump tweets too much, up from 75 percent in December. Republicans came in at 53 percent saying the president used Twitter too often, an 11-percent increase from December. Overall, 57 percent of voters who took the survey said Trump's tweets are hurting his presidency. Another 53 percent said his Twitter use undermines U.S. standing in the world. The poll found that 51 percent of all voters said Trump's tweets imperiled national security. What do you think of Trump's tweets? Do you think they are getting old, or do you find them particularly useful?
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The Public Is Growing Tired of Trump's Tweets, Says Voter Survey

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  • by burtosis ( 1124179 ) on Wednesday June 07, 2017 @06:22PM (#54572707)
    100% of late night comedians think he tweets just the right amount or not enough.
    • 100% of Saturday Night Live writers want Trump to increase the number of late night tweets, and would prefer it if he tweeted every waking moment of his presidency.

      • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

        by Anonymous Coward

        Personally, I'm more tired of the way the media covers EVERY SINGLE LITTLE LAST TWEET as if each one announces an Arab/Israeli Peace Deal. We get it, he doesn't fit the exacting perfect image every president before him portrayed. A few times, they got caught; like when bush called that reporter "a major league ass-hole", or when Obama said "What I was suggesting-you’re absolutely right that John McCain has not talked about my Muslim faith".

        The only difference is that this president doesn't seem to car

        • Re: Maybe but... (Score:5, Informative)

          by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 08, 2017 @01:49AM (#54574879)

          While Trump dumb tweets like a maniac, the rest of the republicans sell parts of your country to the highest bidder and destroy the last shred of a social security system. And when you impeach Trump, you get Pence. The US is really fucked. Sorry.

        • Re:Maybe but... (Score:4, Insightful)

          by Opportunist ( 166417 ) on Thursday June 08, 2017 @04:53AM (#54575371)

          It still is better to shut up and let people think you're a stuck-up asshole than to open your mouth and remove any shade of doubt.

        • by Maritz ( 1829006 ) on Thursday June 08, 2017 @07:21AM (#54575785)

          Say all you want about Trump, but one thing is for certain, he doesn't shy away from who he really is.

          Trump has no fucking clue who he really is. All he knows is that he's the fucking greatest.

    • by BarbaraHudson ( 3785311 ) <barbara.jane.hud ... minus physicist> on Wednesday June 07, 2017 @06:37PM (#54572847) Journal
      Actually, they're mostly pissed off, because no matter how outrageous a scenario they dream up, Trump keeps topping them.
      • Actually, they're mostly pissed off, because no matter how outrageous a scenario they dream up, Trump keeps topping them.

        I think you are referring to house of cards.

        • Nope. Never seen it. I;m at the point where tv, the internet, pretty much everything "virtual" is a poor value in return for time invested.
      • Yeah, the death of satire is always hard on the working comedian.
    • Re:Maybe but... (Score:5, Insightful)

      by msauve ( 701917 ) on Wednesday June 07, 2017 @07:06PM (#54573073)
      It's not that he tweets too much, it's what he tweets. Twitter could be the modern fireside chat, except Trump has no sense of history, no communications skills, and no philosophical foundation for his political beliefs. He's more likely to have read John le Carre than John Locke.
      • Re:Maybe but... (Score:4, Insightful)

        by retchdog ( 1319261 ) on Wednesday June 07, 2017 @07:10PM (#54573093) Journal

        and he's still not particularly likely to have read le Carre.

        • by msauve ( 701917 )
          He skips the big words.
        • by Boronx ( 228853 )

          He clearly hasn't.

      • Re:Maybe but... (Score:5, Informative)

        by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 07, 2017 @09:30PM (#54573965)

        > no communications skills

        The dude literally bullshitted his way to the presidency. He might not have a real foundation for his believes, but his communication and persuasion skills are top notch.

        • Re:Maybe but... (Score:5, Insightful)

          by Xest ( 935314 ) on Thursday June 08, 2017 @02:10AM (#54574915)

          Yep, engaging in an online flame war with the Mayor of London for trying to reassure Londoners right after a terrorist attack really won us Brits over too, top notch communicator you have there. When we'd heard about how 48 people had been butchered, 8 of which were killed the first thing we thought was "You know what? It'd be great to hear Donald Trump's view on this, especially if he blames the Mayor of London and start slagging him off", so we're glad that he focus on a multi-day flame war, rather than just shut the fuck up or offer something nice, but obviously his mother failed as a parent and never taught him the adage that if you have nothing nice to say, then don't say anything at all.

          I'm engaging in British sarcasm here if you didn't get that. He's probably the worst communicator of any world leader I've ever seen because his comments are ill thought through, often barely literate, and usually just objectively wrong. He's basically on par with the rhetoric filled drivel that spills out of fat Kim's mouth over in North Korea.

          All hail King Covfefe, king of the uncommunicators.

        • Re:Maybe but... (Score:4, Insightful)

          by Lennie ( 16154 ) on Thursday June 08, 2017 @03:34AM (#54575145)

          People were and still are desperate and wanted something else than the establishment. With a lot of help from other people in his campaign he didn't mess up enough. And these people who voted for him clearly didn't believe someone would lie this much. Or most lilkely were desperate enough to have selective hearing. When trump said one thing one moment and an other an other moment they would say: ohh, he doesn't mean that about the second thing, because they like the first. That's not very rational.

          • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

            by Vince Ferg ( 972173 )
            But the thing is if people really wanted something like that there was another choice, Bernie Sanders was basically the equivalent of trump in the sense of turning everything upside down but without the 100 scandal stories that followed him or the money. I almost feel as if the majority of people in this nation really believe that if someone has money that means they were very successful and to be that successful they must be really really smart! The American people really make no sense to me and I am 1 o
      • "He's more likely to have read John le Carre than John Locke."
        And this is the sort of snide bullshit that illustrates why he resonates with voters, but the intelligentsia despises him.

        I've read both le Carre and Locke, and I'd agree, le Carre is a FUCKTON more readable.

        And frankly, I doubt Mr Trump reads. Much of anything. Again, putting him in the same camp as 90% of Americans.

        • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

          Shouldn't you try to get the best leader possible, rather than one who is extremely average? The average person probably wouldn't be a very good POTUS, like they wouldn't make a great rocket scientist or brain surgeon because, as Trump has discovered, those jobs are hard. Who knew, as he did actually say.

        • "He's more likely to have read John le Carre than John Locke." And this is the sort of snide bullshit that illustrates why he resonates with voters, but the intelligentsia despises him.

          I've heard this before, that people voted for Trump because they felt slighted and disrespected. If that's true, it really doesn't speak well of those voters. They feel disrespected, so they vote in an obvious moron and charlatan? What, do they think they're sticking it to the man? Do they think making such a foolish and petulant choice will somehow gain them more respect? And those of us who could see who he really was are supposed to somehow feel bad about that?

          People can certainly be arrogant and co

        • "He's more likely to have read John le Carre than John Locke." And this is the sort of snide bullshit that illustrates why he resonates with voters, but the intelligentsia despises him.

          I've read both le Carre and Locke, and I'd agree, le Carre is a FUCKTON more readable.

          And frankly, I doubt Mr Trump reads. Much of anything. Again, putting him in the same camp as 90% of Americans.

          Call me old fashioned, but I want my head of state to be more intelligent than 90% of the population. If you can just have any Joe Below-Average doing the job, you might as well have a random annual lottery for the post.

          Here in the UK, we've had some appalling, unpleasant and useless leaders in the past fifty years, but as far as I remember none of them were actually thick like Trump.

  • by vadim_t ( 324782 ) on Wednesday June 07, 2017 @06:24PM (#54572733) Homepage

    He does great at sabotaging his own schemes. It's really great that he lacks a filter.

    I would love to be a fly on the wall on his lawyers' office. It's got to have a thick covering of hair of all over the floor.

    • by Okian Warrior ( 537106 ) on Wednesday June 07, 2017 @06:52PM (#54572937) Homepage Journal

      He does great at sabotaging his own schemes. It's really great that he lacks a filter.

      I would love to be a fly on the wall on his lawyers' office. It's got to have a thick covering of hair of all over the floor.

      And while everyone is running around with their hair on fire over "covfefe" and his other tweets, he's been quietly getting his agenda done.

      For an example, Jeff Sessions rolled back the Obama-era drug sentencing guidelines, resulting in the harshest possible sentences for drug offenders... which went almost unnoticed by the MSM.

      Trump withdrew from the Paris accord, and Covfefe was the more searched term than Paris Climate Agreement [fortune.com].

      Your side thinks he sabotages his schemes by these tweets.

      The rest of us know (and Trump himself knows) that the tweets are meaningless and valueless in and of themselves, but they distract the MSM from what is really going on, and in a way that makes the left look like gibbering imbeciles.

      He's been doing this since about *a year* prior to the election, and your side hasn't caught on even yet!

      • Your side thinks he sabotages his schemes by these tweets.

        You mean District Court Judges?
        • Your side thinks he sabotages his schemes by these tweets.

          You mean District Court Judges?

          The tweets were used by the judges as justification to override his executive order - that's true.

          At the same time, that justification was roundly decried as being inappropriate material to make a judicial decision on.

          So sure, you could look at it as sabotaging his plans, but you could also look at it as cementing his case with the supreme court. It was highly likely that the District Court Judges would have overridden his orders anyway, but by using the tweets as justification it looks like partisan partia

        • by Boronx ( 228853 )

          Yes, Trump and Okian are not on the side of Federal judges.

      • by hondo77 ( 324058 ) on Wednesday June 07, 2017 @07:55PM (#54573417) Homepage

        And while everyone is running around with their hair on fire over "covfefe" and his other tweets, he's been quietly getting his agenda done.

        What agenda is that? All he's managed to do is undo some of Obama's executive actions. Healthcare? Nada. Border wall? Nope. Travel ban? Nuh uh.

        And what's this "quietly" thing? Trump doesn't do anything quietly. He can't even go to the bathroom in the middle of the night without tweeting something nonsensical (e.g. covfefe).

      • by SirSlud ( 67381 ) on Wednesday June 07, 2017 @08:13PM (#54573551) Homepage

        which went almost unnoticed by the MSM.

        Depends which MSM you're talking about. Everyone but Fox covered it, which is pretty much what you'd expect.

      • No one had their hair on fire over covfefe. Everyone was laughing their asses off instead. Even Trump treated it like a joke with the later tweet. Everyone knew it was a joke, except for Sean Spicer who was trying to defend the original tweet ("The president and a small group of people know exactly what he meant"). Now that was comedy gold.

      • by quantaman ( 517394 ) on Wednesday June 07, 2017 @09:36PM (#54573989)

        The rest of us know (and Trump himself knows) that the tweets are meaningless and valueless in and of themselves, but they distract the MSM from what is really going on, and in a way that makes the left look like gibbering imbeciles.

        He's been doing this since about *a year* prior to the election, and your side hasn't caught on even yet!

        Has Trump tweeted as a distraction? Definitely, there's some evidence that he was deliberately doing outrageous things to grab media attention during the primary.

        But for the most part Trump is usually Tweeting nonsense and usually involved in policy actions that are really bad news, that the two often coincide isn't by design, it's just math.

        But this image of Trump as some brilliant schemer who plays the fool is nonsense.

        There's a model of Trump that does a really good job of explaining pretty much everything he's done.

        1) He's a pure bullshitter, you talk to him and he'll tell you everything you want to hear, regardless of its connection to reality.

        2) He has an extremely short attention span. He doesn't know the first thing about major policy issues because he can't dedicate sufficient attention to understand them. This also makes him impulsive because he can't resist the instant gratification of saying (or tweeting) something stupid. (This may not apply to real estate or certain aspects of business that do genuinely interest him, but I don't have sufficient information for that.)

        3) He has no ideals. His only reason for running for President was to do well in the primary (and then the general election). He probably doesn't have a single policy he wouldn't flip if you surrounded him with the right set of advisors. And because he doesn't have ideals he evaluates people through extremely shortsighted personal measures, like choosing personal loyalty over competence and adherence to duty.

        4) He is at least partially aware of 1-3, and he's extremely insecure about it.

        That really is about all there is to Trump and it was pretty obvious from the start.

        The relevance of the Tweets is they show his current train of thought, and because of his impulsiveness that train of though can turn into policy.

      • Your comments would be more relevant if his tweets were nonsensical and off topic, but they aren't. They are actively self-destructive to things currently going on in his administration.

        e.g. Trump make travel ban, courts strike it down. Trump makes second travel ban, courts strike it down. Court case starts where Trumps side's well paid lawyers spends a lot of time arguing how it is not a travel ban to get what Trump wanted through the system. Trump tweets that lawyers are circlejerking and that people shou

  • What do the Twitter stats say?

  • I am getting to know better the person who is in the Oval Office. I feel as if he is talking directly to me, instead of being filtered by some media outlet.
  • Questionable (Score:4, Insightful)

    by kqc7011 ( 525426 ) on Wednesday June 07, 2017 @06:27PM (#54572769)
    This is a Politico poll, a known opponent of Trump. So one must see the questions, how they were presented and what the audience makeup was. Before giving any validity to the polling data.
    • Re:Questionable (Score:5, Informative)

      by RyoShin ( 610051 ) <tukaro AT gmail DOT com> on Wednesday June 07, 2017 @06:52PM (#54572939) Homepage Journal

      Okie dokie, here ya go [morningconsult.com]. Table POL17 starting page 164, I included select "conservative" breakdowns to give a better idea of potential bias.
      Do you think President Donald Trump uses Twitter
      Demographic | Too much | Not enough | About the right amount | Don’t Know / No Opinion | Total N
      Registered Voters | 69%(1372) | 4%(79) | 15%(308) | 12%(241) |1999
      PID: Rep (no lean) | 53%(361) | 6%(38) | 30%(205) | 11%(77) | 681
      Ideo: Conservative (5-7) | 57%(394) | 4%(25) | 28%(194) | 11%(75) | 689
      2016 Vote: Republican Donald Trump | 51%(400) | 6%(50) | 30%(240) | 13%(101) | 791
      Strongly Approve | 39%(161) | 8%(35) | 42%(176) | 10%(43) | 415
      Somewhat Approve | 58%(267) | 4%(18) | 20%(94) | 18%(84) | 462

      BONUS! Table POL18, starting page 167.
      And, do you think President Donald Trump’s use of Twitter is (POL18)
      Demographic | A good thing | A bad thing | Don’t Know / No Opinion | Total N
      Registered Voters | 23%(456) | 59%(1172) | 19%(372) | 1999

      I leave the breakdowns as an exercise for the reader. (This formatting brought to you by the characters /.)

      • Re:Questionable (Score:4, Insightful)

        by lucm ( 889690 ) on Thursday June 08, 2017 @12:36AM (#54574671)

        This poll has the same bias as the ones that made all the mainstream medias look like idiots on election night. People tell the poller what they think they want to hear. If everything people hear on TV and read in the newspaper is "Trump and his tweets", they're not going to defend him when they get polled about it, no matter what they think.

        All you can tell from these results is what people answered, not what they think.

    • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

      by mr100percent ( 57156 )

      Politico is actually quite pro-Republican, so your ad hominem argument is false.

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by SirSlud ( 67381 )

      I'm pretty sure that anything that doesn't kiss Trumps feet is simply deemed a known opponent of Trump. Often in a revisionist way, such as with rupublican-friendly Politico here.

      If Trump had said anything bad about him self, your post would have started, "This is Trump, a known opponent of Trump."

  • Non Compos Mentis (Score:2, Interesting)

    by PopeRatzo ( 965947 )

    I find President Trump's tweets particularly useful.

  • by whoever57 ( 658626 ) on Wednesday June 07, 2017 @06:28PM (#54572773) Journal

    What do you think of Trump's tweets? Do you think they are getting old, or do you find them particularly useful?

    Definitely useful. He continues to sabotage his own plans by revealing his true motives and incompetence.

    The other week, the "Word of the day" in Words with Friends was "Covfefe".

  • Trump keeps making a fool of himself. Why would anyone opposed to his agenda want to muzzle him? Even with both feet in his mouth, he keeps proving that his mental faculties are questionable, that he doesn't understand how the real world works. and that Republicans nominated and elected the worst-qualified president in history.

    The Saudis are now laughing at how easily he was manipulated.

    Even William Henry Harrison, the 9th president, had a better first 100 days in office, and he died after one month.

  • by Gravis Zero ( 934156 ) on Wednesday June 07, 2017 @06:38PM (#54572855)

    They have been particularly good at exposing how petty, dimwitted, bigoted and foolish he is, not just as a president but as a person. I think it's important for people to understand just kind of a person they vote for, even if it's after the fact.

  • by willoughby ( 1367773 ) on Wednesday June 07, 2017 @06:46PM (#54572909)

    However, I am fed up with the foaming-at-the-mouth, frantic, OMG! reaction of the US news media to every tweet. Let President Trump Tweet away and shut down the news coverage of every tweet & I'd be happy.

  • Wrong (Score:4, Insightful)

    by bistromath007 ( 1253428 ) on Wednesday June 07, 2017 @06:52PM (#54572933)
    People are getting tired of media coverage of Trump's tweets. Only insane nobody blue checks are paying attention to his actual tweets.
  • They're awful (Score:5, Insightful)

    by mr100percent ( 57156 ) on Wednesday June 07, 2017 @06:55PM (#54572971) Homepage Journal

    Trump's tweets are awful, they embarrass America, they embarrass himself, they are tremendously unprofessional and demean the office he occupies. Republicans used to fume that Obama "demeaned" the office by not wearing an acceptable suit in the White House, yet let this guy act like a buffoon and with awful language? Please.

    As much I love watching Trump self-destruct his own administration's policies with his tweets and his big mouth, demolish his own court cases because he can't help blurting things out on Twitter, and watching Sean Spicer and his staff try to twist themselves into logical knots trying to explain that Trump never makes mistakes or that those typos were just new words he invented intentionally, it's exhausting and at some point we have to stop him before he wrecks the office of president for good.

  • None at all (Score:4, Insightful)

    by markdavis ( 642305 ) on Wednesday June 07, 2017 @07:01PM (#54573039)

    >" What do you think of Trump's tweets? Do you think they are getting old, or do you find them particularly useful?"

    I don't have a Twitter account and don't read ANY tweets. Probably not the answer expected. Generally, I don't understand why people are attracted to that form of "communication".

  • ... because they work against him.

    Reporters (and critics) who have been blocked are using Trump's own tweet to petition for equal access [engadget.com].

    Bloomberg reports that White House spokesman Sean Spicer confirmed in a press conference that Trump's tweets should be considered official statements.

  • Nope (Score:4, Interesting)

    by JBMcB ( 73720 ) on Wednesday June 07, 2017 @07:17PM (#54573157)

    I don't pay attention to them, nor news stories about them. Didn't pay any attention to Obama's tweets, either. I also don't pay attention to rumors, hearsay, and "sources report" stories, which seem to be roughly 75% of reports about Trump.

    I do pay attention to policy matters, and laws being enacted. A lot of it is bad. Some of it is good.

    And so it goes.

  • by WaffleMonster ( 969671 ) on Wednesday June 07, 2017 @07:30PM (#54573261)

    [waffle@krusteaz ~]$ ping6 www.whitehouse.gov
    PING www.whitehouse.gov(2600:1406:13:28a::c0:fefe) 56 data bytes
    64 bytes from 2600:1406:13:28a::c0:fefe: icmp_seq=1 ttl=56 time=13.9 ms
    64 bytes from 2600:1406:13:28a::c0:fefe: icmp_seq=2 ttl=56 time=12.8 ms
    64 bytes from 2600:1406:13:28a::c0:fefe: icmp_seq=3 ttl=56 time=18.4 ms
    64 bytes from 2600:1406:13:28a::c0:fefe: icmp_seq=4 ttl=56 time=12.3 ms
    64 bytes from 2600:1406:13:28a::c0:fefe: icmp_seq=5 ttl=56 time=19.5 ms
    64 bytes from 2600:1406:13:28a::c0:fefe: icmp_seq=6 ttl=56 time=13.7 ms
    64 bytes from 2600:1406:13:28a::c0:fefe: icmp_seq=7 ttl=56 time=12.9 ms
    ^C
    --- www.whitehouse.gov ping statistics ---
    7 packets transmitted, 7 received, 0% packet loss, time 6007ms
    rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 12.398/13.618/19.594/2.710 ms

  • by PJ6 ( 1151747 ) on Wednesday June 07, 2017 @07:52PM (#54573393)
    of said tweets.

    I would be pleased as punch if I never had to listen to another story about a tweet from anyone, ever.
  • The same people (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Orgasmatron ( 8103 ) on Wednesday June 07, 2017 @08:22PM (#54573603)

    The same people who told you Trump had a 2% chance of winning now give you his approval polls. Proceed accordingly.

    https://i.redd.it/ujkzkpr6jf1z... [i.redd.it]

  • by mark-t ( 151149 ) <markt AT nerdflat DOT com> on Wednesday June 07, 2017 @08:50PM (#54573747) Journal

    ... because he's running the country like a reality tv show and trying to boost his own ratings.

    I can just hear him saying if he were asked to tone it down: "Why should I stop tweeting? Millions of people love my tweets, so they are really very popular. The people voted me in for president, and millions of people want to see what I'm going to tweet next, because you never know what I'll say or do next, and the people just love that about me! Are you sure your sources suggesting I tweet too often aren't fake news? Maybe I should tweet about that next."

  • "The Public Is Growing Tired of Trump's Tweets, Says Voter Survey"

    Yeah, no shit. I was tired of them before they even started.

    I never dreamed I'd see the day when the president of the United States would spend his time tweeting away like a drunken teenage girl with a head injury. It's just embarrassing.

  • On the one hand, his brain-dead bigoted drivel being vomited out so much got old well before he even ran for President. On the other hand, they are useful in that they A) provide a useful insight into his mentality, which helps in countering his shitty actions, and B) often undermines or outright contradicts is administration's efforts to get anything done, which helps a lot in countering his shitty actions.
  • I say let Donnie tweet. He's fulfilling his destiny, plus doing the only stuff he's good at -- shameless self-aggrandizement, fanning the flames of hatred, intolerance and fear. and demonstrating an awesome ability to misdirect the limited attention of the American public. He is the reincarnation of PT Barnum.
    Is it harming his presidency? I don't know. Twitter has nothing to do with this -- it's Trump's own ability to shoot himself in the foot then cut off someone else's leg & keep on dancing. Is he damaging the office and image of the POTUS? Possibly. More than Bill Clinton did? Tough call. More will be revealed. Is he making America look like a bunch of feuding siblings? I would argue that non-conciliatory congressional cliques like the Freedom Caucus and Tea Partiers have already driven a wedge between Americans and demonstrated that hatred, intolerance, lack of compassion and disrespect is the American social contract of the future. The governed have take up these arms to attack friends, neighbors and family. Is Trump imperiling national security? Sure seems like it from here, But again, he's just doing what he's good at. Let him be. America will be great -- a great bonfire. Trumps just pouring on the gas.
  • Useful (Score:3, Funny)

    by nospam007 ( 722110 ) * on Thursday June 08, 2017 @01:45AM (#54574875)

    It's a nice tool for his dementia doctors to judge how his brain slowly disintegrates.

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