Shortly after the sun came up on Thursday, President Trump was tweeting. Over the next three hours, he tweeted or retweeted other people 89 times, making it one of his most active days on Twitter since he announced his presidential candidacy in 2015. But he was far from done; by 2 p.m., he’d tacked on 20 more tweets and retweets.
Nine of the tweets came in the first half an hour after noon, when Trump was scheduled to be receiving his intelligence briefing.
The president and his allies like to have it both ways on his tweeting. He has repeatedly argued that he considers it a vital way to communicate with his base but, should the media pay attention to the volume or content of the tweets, it’s all waved away as immaterial or trolling. It’s a neat trick, suggesting tweets should be considered seriously only on terms that favor the president.