US President Donald Trump teased that he could be done with Twitter once he leaves office.
“I don’t know if I’ll ever use it again,” Trump told Barstool Sports’ founder Dave Portnoy in an interview released Friday. Portnoy had asked Trump what happens to his account “once it’s over.”
It’s unclear, however, how sincere Trump was being with the claim, given his long history of telling lies and falsehoods.
After all, Trump relied on his favourite social media platform to boost his profile during the presidency of Barack Obama, using it to relentlessly attack his predecessor and promote the racist birther conspiracy theory.
As president, Trump has used the account to launch vitriolic attacks on his political enemies, celebrities and anyone who disagrees with him. He’s also retweeted white nationalist talking points, inflammatory Islamophobic videos and dozens of other offensive posts.
Check out the interview here:
Elsewhere in the interview, Trump claimed he “often, too often” wishes he hadn’t tweeted or retweeted something after the fact.
“It used to be in the old days before this, you’d write a letter and you’d say, ‘This letter is really bad,’ you put it on your desk and then you go back tomorrow and you say, ‘Oh, I’m glad I didn’t send it, right?’” the president told Portnoy.
“But we don’t do that with Twitter, right?” he continued. “We put it out instantaneously, we feel great, and then you start getting phone calls, ‘Did you really say this?’ I say, ‘What’s wrong with that?’”
Trump said “it’s not the tweets, it’s the retweets that get you in trouble” and claimed he often doesn’t bother to scrutinize what exactly it is that he’s about to promote to his 84.1 million followers.
“You see something that looks good and you don’t investigate it, and you don’t look at what’s on the helmet exactly, which is in miniature, and you don’t blow it up,” he claimed.
Again, it’s unclear how sincere Trump was being his admission of regret.