‘Look, I don’t like tweeting... But I get very dishonest media, very dishonest press’
19 Jan 2017 11:06 PM IST
US President-elect Donald Trump, whose sensational announcements and criticism on Twitter has the world hooked on, has said he does not like tweeting but has to use the social media platform as a defence against “dishonest” media.
“Look, I don’t like tweeting, I have other things I can be doing. But I get very dishonest media, very dishonest press.
And it’s my only way that I can counteract. When people make misstatements about me, I’m able to say it and call it out,” Trump told Fox News.
“Now if the press were honest, which it’s not, I would absolutely not use Twitter,” the President-elect said.
Trump evoked his recent Twitter tirade against Georgia Representative John Lewis as an example of why he is forced to express himself over the social media platform.
“When John Lewis said he’s never done it before where he’s skipped an inaugurationHe shouldn’t have said a thing like that it was terrible, I’m able to say it,” Trump said, referring to the 76-year-old civil rights icon recently announcing he will not attend the President-elect’s Friday inauguration.
Trump, during the interview, excerpts of which were released ahead of its telecast, however, boasted about his social media following.
“I’m going to be close to 50 million people, including Facebook and Instagram,” the President-elect said. Trump, who will become the 45th US President on Friday told The Times that he does not intend to lay off Twitter once he is in the Oval Office of the White House and will keep his @realDonaldTrump account. Trump has repeatedly used Twitter for savaging opponents ranging from lawmakers to foreign leaders and even celebrities. Critics have voiced concern, however, that the social media platform’s 140-character limit is too simplistic for complex policy issues.
China calls on US to bar Taiwan from Trump inauguration
China on Wednesday called on the US to bar a Taiwanese delegation from attending Donald Trump’s inauguration on Friday, underscoring concerns that the incoming president could seek to redefine relations between Beijing, Taipei and Washington.
Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said the request had been passed to Trump’s transition team and to the current administration of Barack Obama.
“We urge the US side once again not to allow the Taiwan administration to send the so-called delegation to attend the inauguration and to avoid any forms of official exchange with Taiwan,” Hua said at a daily briefing.
China firmly opposes “anyone from the Taiwan administration engaged in activities that interfere or undermine the China-US relationship in the US under any pretext,” she said.
Delegation leader and former Premier Yu Shyi-kun departed for Washington on Monday together with politicians from both Taiwan’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party and the opposition Nationalists.
Along with attending the inauguration, the delegates plan to hold talks with politicians, academics and overseas Chinese community representatives.
Trump angered Beijing and upset decades of diplomatic precedent by talking by phone with Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen shortly after winning November’s presidential election.
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