Yahoo Finance Trump Claims He'd Quit Twitter 'If We Had Fair Press In This Country'
President Donald Trump really wants to quit Twitter, he claims, but he just ... can’t.
Not yet, anyway.
The president admitted his lingering attraction to the social media platform to reporters on Thursday while signing an executive order designed to weaken legal protections for social media companies.
Trump signed the order a couple of days after Twitter appended fact-check links to his tweets claiming mail-in voting is rife with fraud.
Reporters watching the president sign the order attempted to ask a logical question: If you’re not happy with Twitter, why not just not use it?
The president claimed he really would put the kibosh on Twitter if he didn’t have to deal with unfair reporting by the press.
.@realDonaldTrump says he would delete his @Twitter account if it weren’t for what he considers unfair reporting by the press pic.twitter.com/FSZZZPQCmZ
— Jeff Mason (@jeffmason1) May 28, 2020
The president also claimed that social media has “unchecked power” and is “beginning to editorialize.”
He then rhetorically asked, “Imagine if your phone company edited or silenced your conversations?”
Trump in Oval tells reporters that social media has “unchecked power.” Twitter ceasing to be a neutral public platform and beginning to editorialize. “Imagine if you’re phone company edited or silenced your conversations,” he says.
— Jennifer Jacobs (@JenniferJJacobs) May 28, 2020
Despite the president’s claims he really wants to get off Twitter, many users of the site were a tad skeptical.
No DJT you are a Twitter addict.
— Barbara Sheltraw (@mbs54) May 28, 2020
He just can't stop lying. Tweeter is everything to him.
— Fred Kesselman (@fkess23) May 28, 2020
Fact checking his lies isn't silencing him.
It's exposing a serial liar, con artist, and the architect of a failed pandemic response that has destroyed the US economy and killed over 100,000 Americans to date and shows no sign of stopping.— lawhawk (@lawhawk) May 28, 2020
He's just as likely to quit golfing and eating a well-balanced diet as he is of deleting his twitter account.
— Joyous Panther (@JoyousPanther) May 28, 2020
Some people were especially amused by the president’s phone analogy.
Love HuffPost? Become a founding member of HuffPost Plus today.
honestly that’d be hilarious. “HELLO RYAN’S MOM? HE’S LYING ABOUT WHY HE HASN’T CALLED YOU IN WEEKS, WE CAN ASSURE YOU HE WAS NOT BUSY LIKE HE CLAIMED." https://t.co/bUbLK9Sq96
— Ryan Nanni (@celebrityhottub) May 28, 2020
And, yes, this meme popped up.
— M 🇮🇪 🤔 (@gremla4eva) May 28, 2020
Some people tried to persuade the president to delete the app if only as an act of public service.
Delete Twitter @realDonaldTrump! It will be there single greatest gift you could give this country. Peace. pic.twitter.com/cjzAA0RGSi
— Joelle (@jubbie77) May 28, 2020
Although the president probably won’t delete the app, one person offered a solution for the rest of us.
Here's how we can all make America great again... just take him out of your life completely. #block pic.twitter.com/E3xovy3vUt
— Adam McLane (@mclanea) May 28, 2020
Also on HuffPost
This article originally appeared on HuffPost.
