‘This is Trump unleashed’ — These charts show that the president is tweeting and speaking more than ever

This post was originally published on this site

Donald Trump really has become the commander-in-tweet.

The president’s @realDonaldTrump account sent 115 tweets and retweets by late Thursday night, the Associated Press reported, which looks to be his busiest day ever on the social media platform.

The record flurry of missives came as the House Judiciary Committee spent 14 hours debating the impeachment charges against the president on Dec. 12 before delaying the vote until Friday morning, when it approved the two articles of impeachment accusing Trump of abuse of power and obstructing Congress.

The impeachment inquiry has ramped up Trump’s already prolific tweeting habit, the AP noted, counting 77 tweets on Wednesday and 105 last Sunday. The posts were “repeatedly declaring his innocence and retweeting comments and video of supporters defending his conduct.” They also included a dig against 16-year-old climate activist Greta Thunberg, who was named Time’s Person of the Year.

Previously, September 2019 was named Trump’s busiest month on Twitter TWTR, +0.36% ever. The data storytellers at Chartr counted Trump’s missives via the Trump Twitter Archive, one of a few searchable databases of every one of the president’s tweets. And it found that Trump sent 797 tweets in September, or more than 26 per day on average, including retweets, which added up to a little more than 11,000 tweets since he took the White House.

Prior to this week, the president tweeted more in the week leading up to Oct. 1 than he had in any seven-day period since his inauguration, according to a separate CNBC analysis of his feed, which described the sudden flood of posts as an “impeachment-themed tweetstorm.” The report counted more than 250 tweets from Trump in the seven days after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced the impeachment inquiry, averaging almost 40 posts a day.

Both tweet tallies came on the heels of a CNN analysis, which also found that the president is tweeting more now than he did during the first two years of his presidency. He’s also talking more on camera, and giving lengthier speeches at his rallies.

CNN public editor and political fact-checker Daniel Dale drew on data from Factba.se, which tracks, transcribes and indexes everything that Trump says and posts. Its mission is not to debate or to characterize any of the president’s comments, but rather to preserve a public archive to keep Americans informed.

And this chart shows that Trump has averaged 83 tweets a week in 2019 as of late September, which is a 43% increase from when he posted 58 tweets a week in 2018. It’s a whopping 91% spike from the 44 tweets a week that he tapped out in 2017.

He’s retweeting even more, averaging 38 RTs a week this year, which is a 326% spike from about nine a week in 2018, and six a week in 2017.

Trump is also expressing himself more IRL, as well. The data finds that his rally speeches have increased 26% from last year, now averaging at about one hour and 22 minutes, compared to one hour and five minutes last year, and just 59 minutes the year before.

Related: Trump tries to make impeachment an asset at vitriolic Minnesota rally

Indeed, seven of the 10 longest rally speeches of Trump’s presidency were given this year — and at the time of this CNN analysis, Trump had only had 11 rallies in 2019.

He’s also chewing reporters’ ears off more just before or just after his flights on Marine One or Air Force One. This “chopper talk” has averaged 12 minutes and 37 seconds this year, or a 78% increase over the chats that hovered around seven minutes and five seconds last year.

And with the 2020 presidential election around the corner, Trump is also spending more time on camera. The POTUS averaged about two hours and 37 minutes a week speaking on the air through the second week of September 2019, or about 25 extra minutes talking on camera a week compared to the same time last year.

But Dale suggests that it’s not just the pending election or the impeachment inquiry that’s spurring Trump to speak more publicly. Dale writes that, “The increases have come as Trump has rid himself of most of the advisers who reportedly tried to constrain his impulses, like chief of staff John Kelly and defense secretary James Mattis, and as he has appeared to become even more comfortable behaving as he wishes. This is Trump unleashed.”

Add Comment