Federal prosecutors and Trump’s defense team have pored over the former president’s tweets, each using them to bolster their arguments.
The Posting President
Trump’s use of Twitter, now known as X, was legendary. He used his account, which was one of the most-followed on the platform, to attack his enemies, trade insults, and promote his political agenda.
Addicted to His Phone
“He needs to tweet like we need to eat,” then-White House counselor Kellyanne Conway said. Over the course of his presidency, Trump sent more than 11,000 tweets, or about 7.5 tweets per day on average.
Twitter Analysis
A majority of these tweets were attacks on Trump’s various enemies. More than 2,000 of them were praise of himself, according to an extensive New York Times analysis.
Specific Topics
Sixteen of those tweets involved Trump referring to himself as the people’s “favorite president,” per the Times analysis. In 137 of his tweets, the former president praised dictators.
Potential Delay
According to the Times, Trump aides discussed the possibility of asking Twitter staff to add a 15-minute delay on all of the former president’s posts. However, they gave up on the idea after considering the fallout that would occur should the press or the then-president himself discover the delay.
Prosecutor’s Playbook
Federal prosecutors overseeing one of the federal cases against Trump have used tweets up to a decade old in their case against the former president, which seeks to convince a jury that Trump attempted to overturn the results of the 2020 election illegally. According to a court filing, these tweets are evidence of Trump’s “plan of falsely blaming fraud for election results.”
Inappropriate Statements
The filing claims that Trump “sowed mistrust in the results of the presidential election” through his tweets. By using old tweets, such as one from 2012 in which Trump claimed without evidence that voting machines “switched votes from then-candidate Romney to then-candidate Obama,” prosecutors argue that Trump has a “record of making such claims.”
Long Record
In October 2016, about two weeks before the election, Trump tweeted, “There is large scale fraud happening on and before election day. Why do Republican leaders deny what is going on? So naive!”
Indictment
In July, a grand jury indicted the former president on four charges: conspiracy to defraud the US, obstruction of an official proceeding, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, and conspiracy against rights. Trump continues to deny all these charges.
Same Tactic
However, this week, Trump’s defense team began using the same tactic. Through a selection of Trump’s posts on Twitter, now X, and Truth Social, Trump’s own social media platform, they seek to convince a jury that the prosecution has carefully selected specific posts to cast the former president in a bad light.
What Really Happened?
Trump “stated on social media that protestors should ‘remain peaceful’ and ‘stay peaceful,’” Trump’s defense team argued. They also cited one tweet where Trump told supporters to “go home now.”
Contrast
This evidence contrasts with Trump’s exhortations to his supporters on Jan 6 to “fight like hell.” “If you don’t fight like hell,” he said, “you’re not going to have a country anymore.”
Election Shenanigans
Trump’s defense also accused the prosecutors of leaving out debates over the legitimacy of the 2020 election, which they claimed “are based on extensive information about widespread fraud and irregularities in the 2020 election.”
Solo Claim
However, practically every lawsuit alleging fraud in the 2020 election has been tossed out by courts as baseless. Additionally, experts from both parties, including people who served in Trump’s administration, have denied the existence of any fraud.
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