President Donald Trump has been on a Twitter tear this week, first attacking MSNBC host Mika Brzezinski for “bleeding badly from a face-lift,” before tweeting out a video of a WWE clip in which he bodyslams Vince McMahon — with a CNN logo superimposed on the commissioner’s head.
Both tweets were met with the usual cacophony of bipartisan condemnation, with Democratic and Republican lawmakers and pundits of all stripes joining in on the pile-on.
But one noticeable trend emerged from the week — many of Trump’s most fervent supporters, who have developed an iron-clad resistance criticizing the president, are now wagging their fingers at Trump.
Fox News’s Sean Hannity, Trump’s most dedicated cable news cheerleader, conceded on his radio show that he didn’t “think the president should have tweeted” the comment about Brzezinski. Right wing radio host Michael Savage cried in all caps: “TRUMPS’ BITTER TWITTER HAS TO STOP!”
TRUMPS’ BITTER TWITTER HAS TO STOP! OUR REVOLUTION THREATENED BY PETTY FEUDS. BITTER TWITTER BITTER TWITTER BITTER TWITTER
— Michael Savage (@ASavageNation) June 30, 2017
Laura Ingraham pleaded for “MESSAGE DISCIPLINE” from the administration and Tucker Carlson called the tweets a “real tragedy” for distracting from Trump’s agenda.
MESSAGE DISCIPLINE! Today ALL comms coming out of WH shd be focused on #KatesLaw and #NoSanctuaryforCriminalsAct — not cable TV hosts.
— Laura Ingraham (@IngrahamAngle) June 29, 2017
It’s a growing complaint amongst Trump supporters, who voted for the former reality TV star because of his promises to negotiate his way to fixing Washington — namely that Trump’s compulsion to tweet is hampering his administration’s attempts to push through their agenda.
The same week Trump ridiculed Brzezinski’s bleeding face, Senate Republicans pushed back their deadline to pass a health care bill until after the July 4 recess, lacking the support to get the law passed. The circus induced by Trump’s Twitter habits, propelled by the media, does little to help the White House deal with lawmakers to achieve their policy goals — a fact even administration officials readily admit.
Following the Morning Joe tweets, Trump was back at it on Sunday, issuing his quite literal CNN takedown, again inviting a wave of criticism from opponents and supporters alike.
But while the White House has continued to defend Trump’s decision to tweet as a new way to reach out directly to his supporters, recent polling suggests most Americans have withering patience for his social media antics.
Even before the latest flurry of controversial tweets, public support for Trump’s social media habits was feeble: a Quinnipiac poll released on Thursday found that more than 60% of Americans felt the president should stop tweeting from his personal account — including nearly half of self-identified Republicans.
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