President Donald Trump is defending his frequent — and often incendiary — use of Twitter by saying that the social media platform lets him bypass the “dishonest” press.
“Maybe I would not be here if it wasn’t for Twitter,” Trump said in an interview with Fox News late Wednesday.
“I get such a fake and dishonest press,” he said, singling out the CNN news channel and the three main US networks — ABC, CBS and NBC.
But Trump said he was “not including Fox because I think Fox has been fair to me.”
Much of the press “is not honest… I have close to 100 million people watching me on Twitter, including Facebook and Instagram,” he said.
“I have my own form of media.”
The @realDonaldTrump account on Twitter has just over 26 million followers.
“When I say things, the press does not cover me accurately,” Trump said, while emphasizing that “Twitter is a wonderful thing for me.”
On March 4, Trump set off a furor when he tweeted that president Barack Obama had put a wiretap on communications at Trump Tower, the New York home of the president and first family, before the November 8 election.
