Trump insults Democrats 100 times more than he promotes programs that help Americans

An analysis of Donald Trump’s Twitter account shows he has used the platform at least 100 times more often to talk about Democrats than he has about Medicare, Medicaid, or Social Security since taking office in 2017.

Trump’s prolific Twitter use is a hallmark of his tenure in the White House, and he has tweeted (or retweeted) the word “Democrats” 1,317 times since his inauguration in January 2017, according to data from the Trump Twitter Archive.

By contrast, he has tweeted (or retweeted) the words Medicare, Medicaid, or Social Security just 13 times, excluding an endorsement of Rep. Troy Balderson (R-OH), whom he backed during the 2018 special election.

Trump has tweeted 15,222 times since Inauguration Day, meaning his tweets containing “Democrats” make up 8.6% of his total archive since then. Tweets about the social safety net programs make up approximately 0.08% of that total.

Trump has tweeted specifically about Medicare eight times, Medicaid twice, and Social Security four times. To put those numbers in perspective, Trump attacked Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), who has only been a member of Congress since January 2019, a total of 16 times. He has tweeted about Speaker Nancy Pelosi more than 340 times.

Trump’s most recent statement on the safety net programs was Saturday, when he falsely claimed, “We will not be touching your Social Security or Medicare in Fiscal 2021 Budget.” In fact, the Washington Post has since reported that Trump’s budget would cut Medicare spending by $480 billion over 10 years.

Since that Feb. 8 tweet, Trump has attacked Democrats 12 times. He also accused Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) of stabbing him in the back and joining Democrats to overturn the 2016 election after Romney voted in the impeachment trial to remove Trump from office.

Romney was the only Republican to join all Senate Democrats in voting against Trump on the first article of impeachment, for abuse of power. He voted to acquit Trump of the second article, obstruction of Congress.

A November analysis by the New York Times showed Trump used Twitter to refer to himself as everyone’s “favorite” president 16 times. The same analysis showed Trump promoted his namesake businesses 95 times, more than seven times as often as he promoted Medicare, Medicaid, or Social Security.

When reached for comment on Tuesday, White House spokesperson Judd Deere said, “Instead of obsessing over how many times the President has tweeted, the media could cover his unprecedented accomplishments, including a building a safer, stronger, and more secure America.”

Trump has attacked the media as “enemy of the people” 37 times on Twitter since he was inaugurated.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.