It’s been a hell of a start to 2020 in the world of politics and the main reason for that is none other than Donald Trump’s decision to send Iranian General Qasem Soleimani a belated Christmas present in the form of missiles (which he did without giving notice to congressional leaders btw) . With Donald Trump in the process of being impeached and all, it’s almost like as if he’s putting out a statement that if he can’t be POTUS anymore, then no one can!
But seriously though, as you would expect, the world has been (mostly) unanimous in their condemnation of Trump’s actions and as you would also expect, he’s taken to Twitter to explain his rationale, first with a cryptic tweet:
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1213078681750573056
And then by explaining it in what I can only imagine is an essay for him in a subsequent tweet thread. You can view the entire thread by clicking on the tweet below:
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1213096351296299017
In response, Iran threatened vengeance and swift retaliation, and surprise surprise, Donald Trump responded to that on Twitter as well, tweeting:
“Let this serve as a WARNING that if Iran strikes any Americans, or American assets, we have targeted 52 Iranian sites (representing the 52 American hostages taken by Iran many years ago), some at a very high level & important to Iran & the Iranian culture, and those targets, and Iran itself, WILL BE HIT VERY FAST AND VERY HARD. The USA wants no more threats!”
Donald Trump via Twitter
Of course, the only way we know he’s serious is because he typed that last bit with caps lock on. Everyone knows you mean what you say when you type it in caps. Duhh.
Mr. Trump has been a fervent Twitter user since he came into office and often expresses his controversial thoughts/opinions on the micro blogging site, which usually consist of him harassing, insulting, and demeaning his enemies. He even fired his former Secretary of State by tweet!
All that is totally fine and stuff, but when it comes to matters such as the onset of a potential war and keeping the US Congress in the loop on his decisions, it might not be the best platform for such announcements. He doesn’t seem to care though.
President Trump has told Congress to follow him on Twitter for updates on his acts of war against Iran.
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1213919480574812160?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1213919480574812160&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theverge.com%2F2020%2F1%2F5%2F21050757%2Ftrump-iran-qassem-soleimani-attack-congress-twitter-follow-updates
Yup, that’s right folks. He actually tweeted that.
Trump’s use of Twitter has often left people wondering if his off the cuff style pronouncements should be handled as official government policy or as the incessant babbling of an overgrown child. With all that’s been going on the past couple of days, it’s looking increasingly likely to be the former, which brings up an interesting issue.
Should World Leaders be able to use Twitter to incite geopolitical violence and proclaim matters of national importance? I mean, he pretty much declared war, and not a war of words but an actual war, on Twitter. That can’t be right, right?
In case you forgot, 2020 is only 6 days old and we already have world war 3 as a trending topic. A world war in the age of social media? Of course it’s going to start on Twitter.
