The next Commander in Chief has made it standard operation using Twitter to get his message across. President-elect Donald Trump tweets at all hours and a number of them have been controversial.
Earlier this week, one tweet struck a nerve with some members of Trump’s party. For one West Michigan Congressional leader it wasn’t that one tweet, it’s the non-stop tweeting in general. WGVU sat down with the man who authored the tweet heard ‘round the world.
“I just said, ‘Dude, just stop!’”
U.S. Representative Justin Amash has had enough of his soon-to-be-leaders tweets. The Cascade Township Republican fired off one of his own letting President-elect Donald Trump and the nation know just how he feels about it.
“The reason I did it is, he wouldn’t stop. I think it’s okay for President-elect Trump to respond to critics, but the way he relentlessly does it. The way that he takes personal jabs at people. The way he feels so slighted about everything I think is not healthy for our country. I mean, in my opinion, it was unfortunate what Rep. Lewis said. I think for Rep. John Lewis to say that he’s not a legitimate President was not appropriate. I think in that case it’s appropriate for Donald Trump to respond in some way, but when you’re the President-elect I think the response should be dignified and conciliatory to the extent possible. Instead it was personal jabs, attacking his district, calling it crime infested, saying he was all talk and no action. This is a guy who was beat up during the Civil Rights Movement. To say those kinds of things about him went too far and he wouldn’t let it go. You know, he tweeted a couple times, and then 10, 11 hours later he tweeted again. And I think he had a couple more later on. So, it’s probably been five or more tweets now on John Lewis.”
I asked U.S. Rep. Amash if this is a way for President-elect Trump to reach out directly to voters bypassing the media to get his message out or does it go beyond that?
“Well, I don’t have a problem with the President using Twitter. I think that it’s okay for an elected official, a President, a member of Congress to use Twitter, to use social media, to get a message out on a daily basis about what they think or what they’re working on. I think what matters is the tone. What matters is the types of things you’re talking about. If your discussion is always about personal slights then it gets tiring. I mean, it’s going to wear people out in this country. Even people who are very supportive of what he’s doing right now, they’re going to get worn out by it. So, you know when I tweeted back at him the other day, ‘Dude, just stop!’ it was frankly, some advice. I think he has the opportunity to bring people back into the fold but it’s not going to happen if he’s always on the attack and always so relentless in going after people he views as his enemies.”
Did Trump responded to U.S. Rep. Amash’s tweet?
“He hasn’t responded to me and I’ve been critical of him on a few occasions but I haven’t heard anything back and that’s fine if he wants to respond back that’s fine. We’ll have a nice Twitter battle.”