# No twitter---so why doesn't Trump use a blog? **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [February 15, 2021, 9:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-twitter-so-why-doesnt-trump-use-a-blog/932939 "2021-02-15T09:04:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Deeg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/deeg/32/2955_2.png) [@Deeg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Deeg)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2021, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-twitter-so-why-doesnt-trump-use-a-blog/932939/21 "2021-02-15T15:31:12Z")
I think it’s largely this plus the fact that a blog would expose his lack of coherent thinking. Twitter was perfect for him: the character limit was an excuse for short rants. Then there is the ambiguity of retweets; it’s the social media form of Trump’s “people say…”. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2021, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-twitter-so-why-doesnt-trump-use-a-blog/932939/22 "2021-02-15T15:45:19Z")
> [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](#): > > Sources from inside his circle right now are telling reporters that Trump is terrified of the prospect of criminal prosecution for incitement of violence and election interference. Would that that becomes true. To the degree he really believes that Deep State crap, he totally expects his turn at special rendition and the waterboard awaits. Or maybe just a secret prison in Slobovostan. ---
**Author:** ![joebuck20](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/74df32/32.png) [@joebuck20](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joebuck20)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2021, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-twitter-so-why-doesnt-trump-use-a-blog/932939/23 "2021-02-15T15:59:54Z")
> [@Crankyhillbilly](#): > > I’m surprised that a conservative Twitter competitor hasn’t sprung up with him as the feature. It would give them a huge jump start to compete. That’s what Parler tried to be, and, well, look how that turned out. Anyway, I’m surprised he hasn’t just gone with good old fashioned mass email. Seems perfect for his less technologically savvy supporters. ---
**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2021, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-twitter-so-why-doesnt-trump-use-a-blog/932939/24 "2021-02-15T17:34:04Z")
> [@Aspidistra](#): > > Having a blog usually requires you to think in more than two sentences at a time. So there’s that. I think it’s this more than anything. Twitter’s artificial short-form is fantastic camouflage for people who want to seem smart, but never have more than a dozen words to put together. Or for people who just enjoy riling up the troops without them expecting detailed explanations. I suspect that a bigger reason is Twitter analytics. Depending on what analytics platform you use, you can shoot out some half-baked tweet and watch realtime analytics to see if folks are buying it. If it runs, build on that theme. If it tanks, delete the tweet and pretend you never said it. I suspect that Trump had a pricey analytics solution and was heavily dependent on it to craft all his messaging. The approach of “throw stuff at the wall” isn’t so workable on media channels apart from Twitter, Facebook, Reddit, etc. Investment in messages is higher, the feedback isn’t as rich. It requires more intellectual firepower and some sort of non-external lodestone of what’s good and bad. Trump is obviously going to shy away from that sort of platform. ---
**Author:** ![squeegee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/squeegee/32/14537_2.png) [@squeegee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/squeegee)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2021, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-twitter-so-why-doesnt-trump-use-a-blog/932939/25 "2021-02-15T18:07:00Z")
> [@joebuck20](#): > > That’s what Parler tried to be, and, well, look how that turned out FYI, today [Parler announced it has returned.](https://thehill.com/policy/technology/538872-parler-announces-official-relaunch-says-it-is-back-online) ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2021, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-twitter-so-why-doesnt-trump-use-a-blog/932939/26 "2021-02-15T18:15:38Z")
> [@squeegee](#): > > FYI, today [Parler announced it has returned](https://thehill.com/policy/technology/538872-parler-announces-official-relaunch-says-it-is-back-online). Let’s hope its users have learned a lesson about [uploading their personal data to the site](https://techbeacon.com/security/scraped-parler-data-reveals-countless-capitol-perps). I suspect law enforcement and hackers are going to be just as interested as they were before in who’s saying stupid shit about illegal and terroristic activities on Parler. ---
**Author:** ![Saintly\_Loser](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saintly_loser/32/4045_2.png) [@Saintly\_Loser](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saintly_Loser)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2021, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-twitter-so-why-doesnt-trump-use-a-blog/932939/27 "2021-02-15T18:32:58Z")
At the very bottom of all this, sure, it’s probably true that Trump isn’t good with technology, may be afraid of leaving a written record behind, or may be advised not to leave a record, and all that. But I think it comes down to one thing. Everything I’ve read about Trump indicates that he’s just not comfortable with the written word. Twitter is about the limit for him. I don’t think he could manage to produce a couple of hundred, let alone a couple of thousand, words every week or so. Or every month or so. I really don’t think he could do it. ---
**Author:** ![Red\_Wiggler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/red_wiggler/32/13190_2.png) [@Red\_Wiggler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Red_Wiggler)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2021, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-twitter-so-why-doesnt-trump-use-a-blog/932939/28 "2021-02-15T19:05:23Z")
Of course Trump can’t manage any of this. But he can hire people to do it for him, especially with the hundreds of millions he’s grifted _since_ he lost the election. He could even hire people to flesh out his stupid monosyllabic ideas. It’s a mystery to me why he hasn’t done this, especially since it’s another vehicle for soliciting donations. ---
**Author:** ![Kimera757](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kimera757/32/3765_2.png) [@Kimera757](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimera757)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2021, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-twitter-so-why-doesnt-trump-use-a-blog/932939/29 "2021-02-15T19:17:47Z")
He would have to _gasp_ pay them to do that. I figure if he set up a Wordpress blog it would quickly be shut down. Some of the smaller operators wouldn’t shut down his blog, but they’re smaller and so get less attention. ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2021, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-twitter-so-why-doesnt-trump-use-a-blog/932939/30 "2021-02-15T21:03:24Z")
Trump doesn’t trust ghostwriters. [With good reason.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_Schwartz_(author)) ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2021, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-twitter-so-why-doesnt-trump-use-a-blog/932939/31 "2021-02-16T01:39:48Z")
I’m in the camp of Twitter having been about his max length of being able to stay with a coherent thought. He could blog the same stuff he tweets, but it would look a lot sillier in that format. I don’t think it would be a challenge for his fans to find him: just bookmark the page, click on the bookmark, and you’re there. The problem is, when you’re there, there’s gonna be no ‘there’ there. As far as monetizing goes, there’s Substack - he could always go that route. He’d probably be able to sell a ton of subscriptions right off the bat. After that, though, I suspect it would go downhill pretty fast. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2021, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-twitter-so-why-doesnt-trump-use-a-blog/932939/32 "2021-02-16T02:07:18Z")
> [@Deeg](#): > > Then there is the ambiguity of retweets; it’s the social media form of Trump’s “people say…”. Oh, yeah, retweets. I definitely agree not having those would hamper him. ---
**Author:** ![Paul\_was\_in\_Saudi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/b77776/32.png) [@Paul\_was\_in\_Saudi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_was_in_Saudi)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2021, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-twitter-so-why-doesnt-trump-use-a-blog/932939/33 "2021-02-16T02:31:44Z")
Honestly, I suspect he is not very interested. He is quite old, and was quite ill not too long ago. He had some shots of energy in the last year or so, but not many. He had some rallies, he put out some tweets. He did some of the things he likes doing. Otherwise, he seems to be a guy who wanders into the office at ten and out by two… I think he lacks the energy, self-discipline, and desire to be very active politically. He is slowing down and frankly fixing to die. ---
**Author:** ![bobot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bobot/32/21622_2.png) [@bobot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bobot)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2021, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-twitter-so-why-doesnt-trump-use-a-blog/932939/34 "2021-02-16T02:39:57Z")
> [@chappachula](#): > > Why is he staying so quiet? Am I not seeing something?. I haven’t read the thread, so pardon me if (ha-ha. “if”, I kill me.) someone has already stated the obvious truth. Because he can’t fucking write! He is barley capable of stringing words together to form a proper sentence. You’ve read his stuff on twitter, I assume? The fuck is he going to do with a full blank page??? Fill it with writing?? ---
**Author:** ![julezz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/838e76/32.png) [@julezz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/julezz)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2021, 2:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-twitter-so-why-doesnt-trump-use-a-blog/932939/35 "2021-02-16T02:52:57Z")
“But remember back in the early days of the internet (1996 or so )when people had ‘home pages’ on Yahoo?..” I didn’t realize Yahoo was that old! I was thinking the same thing. I can’t believe Trump is trying to be a ghost. Isn’t he planning a “TrumpTV” podcast thing? Or is that already under way? ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2021, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-twitter-so-why-doesnt-trump-use-a-blog/932939/36 "2021-02-16T03:30:44Z")
> Let’s hope [Parler’s] users have learned a lesson about uploading their personal data to the site… Let’s hope they haven’t. I’m looking forward to insurrectionists and potential terrorists handing their personal info right to the Feds. ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2021, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-twitter-so-why-doesnt-trump-use-a-blog/932939/37 "2021-02-16T03:58:32Z")
> [@bobot](#): > > He is barley capable of stringing words together to form a proper sentence. Well, cut the guy some slack, I tend to get more capable at stringing words together when I’ve imbibed a bit of the ol’ barley too. (Sorry, could not resist tweaking textbook example of Gaudere’s Law.) ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2021, 4:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-twitter-so-why-doesnt-trump-use-a-blog/932939/38 "2021-02-16T04:39:31Z")
> [@HMS\_Irruncible](#): > > I suspect that a bigger reason is Twitter analytics. Depending on what analytics platform you use, you can shoot out some half-baked tweet and watch realtime analytics to see if folks are buying it. If it runs, build on that theme. If it tanks, delete the tweet and pretend you never said it. I suspect that Trump had a pricey analytics solution and was heavily dependent on it to craft all his messaging Plus of course the addictive (by design!) satisfaction of seeing just how many people hit “like” and “repost”. And yes, back to an earlier post – he himself is part of a huge segment of people for whom things like Twitter or Facebook via smartphone app is as far as they’ll go since you need not know how it works you can just have it ping followers with a new message notification whenever one comes. As to why he does not do a podcast, lacking a cheering audience to energize him he’d get himself bored and he knows it. Plus good quality production is neither cheap nor done quickly so by the time the final product were assembled he would have lost interest or moved along. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2021, 12:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-twitter-so-why-doesnt-trump-use-a-blog/932939/39 "2021-02-16T12:10:11Z")
> [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](#): > > He’s simply aware that all of the legal protections he had as president have been stripped away. He’s finally tumbled to the fact that anything he says, writes, posts, tweets, can and will be used against him in a court of law. This, and there’s another possibility: He’s incapacitated. Not ‘lying in bed’ incapacitated, but the whirlwind and stress of the past 5 years, the country raging at you and you raging at them, the sheer fright and desperation needed to lead a January 6th as he did, for all of it to come to a screeching halt as it did on that day… especially given he _thought Pence had been captured by MAGA and that he might actually win_… and now he’s facing a future with no protections, with 60% of Americans disliking him (and 30% actively hating him), legal challenges out the yazoo, his friends facing issues (Dominion lawsuits, loss of the Senate, more) brought about by their service to him… it’s very likely he has spent much of the past 6 weeks in a mental fugue/fog/panic/gibberish, whatever you want to call it. I know I would. Holy shit! If I had Trump’s future, I’d be witless with competing urgencies. What to focus on next - the shit we dopers know about or the shit nobody knows about (yet)? My mind would be a fucking whirlwind. ---
**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2021, 12:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-twitter-so-why-doesnt-trump-use-a-blog/932939/40 "2021-02-16T12:51:15Z")
> [@JRDelirious](#): > > Plus of course the addictive (by design!) satisfaction of seeing just how many people hit “like” and “repost”. Well yeah, that’s the ground floor of analytics. You can buy software that gives more sophisticated analysis… sentiment, demographics, all kinds of stuff. Someone with zero political experience can just start babbling, and use their analytics to A/B test their way through to refining a message that people will buy. It was made for someone like Trump. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-twitter-so-why-doesnt-trump-use-a-blog/932939.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-twitter-so-why-doesnt-trump-use-a-blog/932939.md?page=3)