As the death toll continued to rise Monday from Tropical Storm Harvey’s assault on Texas, President Trump’s mind appeared otherwise occ…
His tweets have the power to shape international relations, send stock prices up — or down — and galvanize the American public.
We’re watching how Donald Trump is using this platform of unfettered communication now that he’s commander in chief. Here is everything Trump has tweeted since he was sworn in as 45th president of the United States. In many cases, we look at what he was reacting to and whether what he said was accurate. And, as much as possible, we’ll relate what else was going on at the time. Check back for more as Trump continues to tweet.
As the death toll continued to rise Monday from Tropical Storm Harvey’s assault on Texas, President Trump’s mind appeared otherwise occupied.
Trump retweeted messages taking aim at President Obama and the news media, as well as one from an account called Inspirational Quotes.
The first was a tweet from Dinesh D’Souza, a conservative political commentator who has been promoting a book billed as an expose of what he calls the « Nazi roots » of American liberalism.
In reply to a tweet from the Washington Post about an attack by anti-fascists on right-wing demonstrators in Berkeley, D’Souza wrote that the paper had finally printed « the truth » about the source of violence at such events.
D’Souza appeared to suggest that counter-demonstrators had been the sole source of violence at other right-wing rallies, such as those recently staged in Boston and Laguna Beach .
His tweet came a little over two weeks after a woman was killed near a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Va., when a car, allegedly driven by a rally participant, sped into a crowd of anti-racism protesters.
Trump then retweeted a message from Fox News commentator and conservative columnist Katie Pavlich.
Pavlich was replying to a tweet from onetime deputy national security advisor Ben Rhodes, who appeared to take issue with Trump’s recent pardon of former Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio .
« Obama used his pardon and commutation power to give a second chance to people who deserved empathy, not racists who showed none, » Rhodes wrote.
Pavlich shot back that Obama had pardoned a « traitor, » as well as a « terrorist. »
She appeared to refer to Chelsea Manning, the former U. S. Army intelligence analyst who was jailed after leaking classified files to WikiLeaks, and Oscar Lopez Rivera, who was convicted of charges stemming from his leadership of a Puerto Rican separatist organization linked to a string of bombings in the 1970s and 1980s.
Obama, as one of his final acts in office in January, commuted all but four months of the remainder of Manning’s 35-year prison sentence. He did the same for Rivera, who had been serving a 70-year sentence. Obama did not issue a pardon in connection with either case.
Somewhat puzzlingly, Trump then retweeted a message containing a quote from Mother Teresa calling for unity.
Trump’s final retweet of the morning was a message from Texas Gov. Greg Abbott thanking National Guard troops for their help in rescuing those left stranded by Harvey.
More than 30,000 people in Houston and across the Gulf Coast were reported to be displaced from their homes.
The storm, which made landfall Friday night as a Category 4 hurricane, was continuing to dump rain as it lingered over the southeastern area of the state. The death toll stood at eight by midday Monday, and authorities said that more deaths were possible as floodwaters in many areas continued to rise.
Trump planned to visit the state Tuesday to witness the destruction.
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