You wouldn’t know this from news coverage, since reporters still count on the occasional shocking Trump tweet to drive the news cycle, and he occasionally obliges. (He changed US Syria policy in one tweet, and used another to bump Defense Secretary James Mattis out of office early.) His tendency to govern by tweet has also shifted other politicians’ behavior, making the formerly staid back-room business of D.C. feel like an online free-for-all.
But if you still think of Trump as the tweeter-in-chief, master of the pithy insult and well-placed exclamation point, just visit his feed. The crisp, unpredictable tweets from the start of his presidency have largely become rambling and verbose. His account is weirdly turgid, loaded with ponderous attacks on his perceived enemies and obscure multi-part arguments about his legal situation. At other times, it veers as close as Trump has ever sounded to Washingtonesque.
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