• Home
  • Latest
  • Fortune 500
  • Finance
  • Tech
  • Leadership
  • Lifestyle
  • Rankings
  • Multimedia

Trendingnow

1

Mark Cuban says he has the solution to growing income inequality, and it's to reward every employee—from CEO to janitor—with company stock

2

OpenAI says its AI models secretly broke out of a secure test environment and hacked into AI company Hugging Face in order to cheat on an evaluation

3

Mathematicians grapple with a ‘very rapid and very unsettling change’ as AI cracks yet another century-old problem

1

Mark Cuban says he has the solution to growing income inequality, and it's to reward every employee—from CEO to janitor—with company stock

2

OpenAI says its AI models secretly broke out of a secure test environment and hacked into AI company Hugging Face in order to cheat on an evaluation

3

Mathematicians grapple with a ‘very rapid and very unsettling change’ as AI cracks yet another century-old problem
TechDonald Trump

No One Knows What Trump Is Going to Tweet, Spokesman Says

By
Mathew Ingram
Mathew Ingram
Down Arrow Button Icon
By
Mathew Ingram
Mathew Ingram
Down Arrow Button Icon
January 5, 2017, 6:24 PM ET
Donald Trump, Melania Trump
Melania Trump, right, looks on as her husband President-elect Donald Trump talks to reporters during a New Year's Eve party at Mar-a-Lago, Saturday, Dec. 31, 2016, in Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)Evan Vucci AP
Add Fortune on Google for similar content.

As Donald Trump has moved from being just another Republican candidate to the president-elect, speculation has intensified about the “loose cannon” approach he appears to take when it comes to using Twitter. Does he just tweet whatever he feels like saying at any moment, or are his tweets crafted by a PR team?

According to Sean Spicer, who will soon become the Trump’s press secretary, no one—including Spicer—has any idea what the incoming president is going to say until they see it on Twitter (or get the blowback from one of his statements, presumably).

“I do not get a memo [about what the tweets will contain]. He drives the train on this,” Spicer said during an event on Wednesday night in Chicago, according to a report by the Wall Street Journal. The event also included President Obama’s former press secretary, Robert Gibbs, as well David Axelrod, a former Obama adviser.

Although Spicer said Trump chooses what to tweet and when, he hasn’t always had that kind of control. His campaign staff took over his Twitter account just before the election, although he regained his control over it after winning the campaign.

Get Data Sheet, Fortune’s technology newsletter.

Spicer said that he checks Trump’s Twitter feed as soon as he wakes up because “it drives the news.” And he suggested that it’s not the incoming president’s job to fact-check everything before he posts it on Twitter.

At the same time, however, Spicer rejected the idea that Trump doesn’t consider what he is going to say, or what the potential outcome of his comments might be. It’s a “misconception… that he is just randomly tweeting,” Spicer said. “He is a very strategic thinker.”

So far, that strategic thinking has led to a political faux pas involving relations with China, repeated allegations about millions of illegal voters—a claim that has been repeatedly proven false—and what appeared to be a threat that the U.S. would enhance its nuclear-weapons program, followed by a comment encouraging a potential arms race. Trump has also complimented Russian president Vladimir Putin on his political strategy, and used his Twitter account to criticize the CIA.

The United States must greatly strengthen and expand its nuclear capability until such time as the world comes to its senses regarding nukes

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 22, 2016

Trump’s Twitter comments have also caused often dramatic movements in stock prices, including a drop in Boeing shares after he criticized the company’s Air Force One contract (using inaccurate numbers) and a similar decline after he said the Lockheed-Martin F-35 program was too expensive.

After Trump’s remarks about nuclear weapons, senior staff rushed to qualify his comments, saying there were no plans to add more weapons. Similar qualifications were required after Trump suggested he was not confident in the work of the U.S. intelligence community, comments that came just before a report that his administration may cut back or re-organize the existing intelligence agencies in some way — a claim that Spicer says is untrue.

Despite the impression that much of his job will consist of trying to put out fires that President Trump starts on Twitter, the incoming press secretary said he didn’t see it that way at all. He described it at the Chicago event as “an exciting part of the job.”

These are all of Trump’s potential conflicts of interest:

Spicer also said that Trump will likely continue to pursue the same approach on Twitter once he becomes the president, because it gives him a direct way to communicate to the American people. The administration is also considering other ways to do this, Spicer said, including reaching out to bloggers and other non-traditional media outlets that aren’t usually part of White House briefings.

Trump’s chief of strategy, Steve Bannon, is the chairman of one such outlet known as Breitbart News, a right-wing publication that has boasted about its ties to so-called “alt right” conservative groups, many of whom advocate a form of economic nationalism that includes overt racism.

In any case, if you enjoy the prospect of having the U.S. president pursue various aspects of national and foreign policy via Twitter, and engage in public attacks on those he perceives as his enemies, it would appear that you are in for an exciting four years.

About the Author
By Mathew Ingram
See full bioRight Arrow Button Icon
Add Fortune on Google for similar content.

Latest in Tech

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025

Most Popular

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Fortune Secondary Logo
Rankings
  • 100 Best Companies
  • Fortune 500
  • Global 500
  • Fortune 500 Europe
  • Most Powerful Women
  • World's Most Admired Companies
  • See All Rankings
  • Lists Calendar
Sections
  • Finance
  • Fortune Crypto
  • Features
  • Leadership
  • Health
  • Commentary
  • Success
  • Retail
  • Mpw
  • Tech
  • Lifestyle
  • CEO Initiative
  • Asia
  • Politics
  • Conferences
  • Europe
  • Newsletters
  • Personal Finance
  • Environment
  • Magazine
  • Education
Customer Support
  • Frequently Asked Questions
  • Customer Service Portal
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms Of Use
  • Single Issues For Purchase
  • International Print
Commercial Services
  • Advertising
  • Fortune Brand Studio
  • Fortune Analytics
  • Fortune Conferences
  • Business Development
  • Group Subscriptions
About Us
  • About Us
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map
  • About Us
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map
  • Facebook icon
  • Twitter icon
  • LinkedIn icon
  • Instagram icon
  • TikTok icon
  • YouTube icon

Latest in Tech

Larry Page and Sergey Brin
SuccessBillionaires
Google’s founders are snapping up Miami mansions, as billionaires flee California’s proposed tax—and the company is buying office space to accommodate
By Emma BurleighJuly 22, 2026
1 hour ago
orson
CommentaryOpenAI
We got California to intervene about OpenAI’s corporate switch from nonprofit status. It’s time for the SEC to come to the table
By Orson Aguilar and Catherine BracyJuly 22, 2026
4 hours ago
A woman observes stock trends on her smartphone while a computer screen displays financial graphs.
NewslettersCFO Daily
Beyond SpaceX: Why great IPOs depend on more than first-day demand
By Sheryl EstradaJuly 22, 2026
4 hours ago
Arrakis cofounder and CEO Rafael Quintanilla.
Startups & VentureVenture Capital
Exclusive: Arrakis, betting AI’s biggest payoff is in industrial sectors not office work, emerges from stealth with $38 million in venture funding
By Jeremy KahnJuly 22, 2026
5 hours ago
ls
Commentarybooks
Confessions of an award-winning AI memoirist — the ‘slop’ debate isn’t really about good writing, and you know it
By Luke StoffelJuly 22, 2026
5 hours ago
b
Commentarythe future of work
Manpower President: The future of work question that even CEOs can’t answer
By Becky FrankiewiczJuly 22, 2026
5 hours ago

Most Popular

Mark Cuban says he has the solution to growing income inequality, and it's to reward every employee—from CEO to janitor—with company stock
Success
Mark Cuban says he has the solution to growing income inequality, and it's to reward every employee—from CEO to janitor—with company stock
By Sasha RogelbergJuly 20, 2026
2 days ago
OpenAI says its AI models secretly broke out of a secure test environment and hacked into AI company Hugging Face in order to cheat on an evaluation
Cybersecurity
OpenAI says its AI models secretly broke out of a secure test environment and hacked into AI company Hugging Face in order to cheat on an evaluation
By Jeremy Kahn and Emily ForliniJuly 21, 2026
21 hours ago
Mathematicians grapple with a ‘very rapid and very unsettling change’ as AI cracks yet another century-old problem
AI
Mathematicians grapple with a ‘very rapid and very unsettling change’ as AI cracks yet another century-old problem
By Eva RoytburgJuly 21, 2026
1 day ago
‘I want to die broke’: Billionaire philanthropist Denny Sanford dies after giving away $4 billion
Success
‘I want to die broke’: Billionaire philanthropist Denny Sanford dies after giving away $4 billion
By Sydney LakeJuly 20, 2026
2 days ago
Despite a $156 million contract, Knicks star Jalen Brunson still calls his parents for financial advice any time he makes a big purchase
Success
Despite a $156 million contract, Knicks star Jalen Brunson still calls his parents for financial advice any time he makes a big purchase
By Emma BurleighJuly 21, 2026
1 day ago
'Dr. Doom' Nouriel Roubini says we're headed for universal basic income or 'some form of socialism' as AI revolutionizes work—He calls that optimistic
AI
'Dr. Doom' Nouriel Roubini says we're headed for universal basic income or 'some form of socialism' as AI revolutionizes work—He calls that optimistic
By Jason MaJuly 18, 2026
4 days ago

© 2026 Fortune Media IP Limited. All Rights Reserved. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy | CA Notice at Collection and Privacy Notice | Do Not Sell/Share My Personal Information
FORTUNE is a trademark of Fortune Media IP Limited, registered in the U.S. and other countries. FORTUNE may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. Offers may be subject to change without notice.