May 23, 2018

DONALD TRUMP IS SHOUTING MORE

Yin Bogu/Xinhua via ZUMA

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Hmmm. President Trump’s use of ALL CAPS on Twitter seems to be growing. This morning produced half a dozen examples:

  • SPY
  • SPYGATE
  • SPYING
  • RIGHT TO TRY
  • DODD FRANK
  • WITCH HUNT

This seems like an increase to me. Is it? Can someone please check? And what does it mean? Perhaps it’s just a phase he’s going through. Or maybe it polls well. Or maybe it relates to Trump’s mental state. Then again, it might actually be the work of Trump’s Twitter team. The Boston Globe reports:

West Wing employees who draft proposed tweets intentionally employ suspect grammar and staccato syntax in order to mimic the president’s style, according to two people familiar with the process. They overuse the exclamation point! They Capitalize random words for emphasis. Fragments. Loosely connected ideas. All part of a process that is not as spontaneous as Trump’s Twitter feed often appears.

….When a White House employee wants the president to tweet about a topic, the official writes a memo to the president that includes three or four sample tweets, according to those familiar with the process. Trump then picks the one he likes best. While staff members do consciously use poor grammar, they do not intentionally misspell words or names, one person familiar with the process explained.

So there you have it. Bad grammar: OK! Bad spelling: SAD!

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