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White House: Trump’s tweets are ‘official statements’

Posted at 5:27 PM, Jun 06, 2017
and last updated 2017-06-06 17:27:52-04

WASHINGTON — White House press secretary Sean Spicer said Tuesday President Donald Trump’s tweets are indeed official statements.

“The President is the President of the United States, so they’re considered official statements by the President of the United States,” Spicer said, when asked during his daily briefing how they should be characterized. Spicer did not indicate whether that included both of the President’s Twitter handles: @realDonaldTrump and @POTUS.

Spicer, who fields a lot of questions about the meaning of the President’s tweets, was asked if Trump undermines his own agenda-setting when he tweets. On Monday, for example, rather than focusing on his administration’s planned roll out of a week focused on infrastructure, Trump knocked his Justice Department’s handing of his travel ban in the wake of a terrorist attack in London.

“The President is the most effective messenger on his agenda,” Spicer said. He then touted Trump’s 110 million followers across social media platforms.

“And the same people critiquing his use of it now critiqued it during the election and it turned out pretty well for him,” Spicer said.

After his aides rolled out a week on infrastructure rebuilding, the President has undercut their messages and briefings, taking to social media to admonish the “MSM” (mainstream media) and call forcefully for a travel ban from certain countries.

In a follow-up question, another reporter asked about the ACLU’s tweet that they will use the President’s tweets in building a case in the Supreme Court: “Yes, we may incorporate @realDonaldTrump’s tweets about the ban into our Supreme Court argument.”

“We’ve made it clear that the danger is real the law is clear, and there is no question that we should prevail,” Spicer said.