Will Twitter make @RealDonaldTrump a one-term president?

by Scott Goodstein

Let’s face it, @RealDonaldTrump became the Heisman Trophy winner of this new media, tirelessly tweeting out shocking news and changing the conversation.

But the irony lies in his Twitter handle’s first four letters: R-E-A-L. Trump doesn’t demonstrate the persona of a politician who is focused on policy; there is no need for a late-night talk show interview to understand the soft personal side of this president.

… Even if these knee-jerk thoughts are eventually deleted, he has built up a consistent pattern for Americans to judge his character…

We’ve gotten to know exactly who he is by hearing from him 24 hours a day for the past four years. Twitter gave this reality TV show host his biggest weapon in 2016, and now it may be the biggest reason for his downfall.

Without handlers able to hide their loose cannon of a client, we are fortunate to know exactly what and how President Trump thinks.

We have seen years of Trump’s name-calling, his promotion of hate speech, racism, xenophobia and anti-Semitism.

Even if these knee-jerk thoughts are eventually deleted, he has built up a consistent pattern for Americans to judge his character.

His tweets are clear about his beliefs, instincts and political convictions.

Unfortunately, we are not seeing the same type of honest emotion from the other side to counterbalance these deeply personal opinions from the right.

Shortly after the 2016 election, I challenged Democrats to do better on social media by using some of Trump’s 2016 playbook.

This included speaking directly to base voters through hashtags while tweeting around the clock in the same way Trump does with his #MAGA base.

“Clearly, Mr. Trump took #NoFilter to the extreme,” I wrote a few days after the election, “But all candidates need to be more authentic online. However appalled we may have been by Mr. Trump’s tweets, they did not feel washed through a political spin machine.”

Most Democratic candidates still have staffers tweeting from a list of approved phrases that are scheduled and placed on content calendars, instead of using these platforms to amplify the candidate’s actual personality.

None can compete against the vitriolic, emotionally charged tweets that are Trump’s specialty.

While Twitter recently started flagging Trump’s tweets for violation of services, his true colors have already shown. I believe this is great news for the 2020 election.

We have had a front-row seat to the naked emperor and all his thoughts for the last four years. The curtain was pulled back so far that we know exactly how the machine works.

While millions of voters fell for Trump’s childish branding of “Crooked Hillary,” nobody seems to be responding to his branding of Joe Biden as “Sleepy Joe.”

I hope the Twitter president will be served an ironic outcome of biblical proportions come November. If Trump loses, it won’t be because America doesn’t know who the real Donald Trump is.

“But all candidates need to be more authentic online. However appalled we may have been by Mr. Trump’s tweets, they did not feel washed through a political spin machine.”

It will be because we know him all too well.

MARKETING magazine has brought Scott Goodstein to speak in Malaysia. Scott was the external online director for Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign in charge of the campaign’s social media platforms, mobile technology, and lifestyle marketing. He was a lead digital strategist on Bernie Sanders’s 2016 campaign and is the founder of CatalystCampaigns.com

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