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Didn’t watch the “Presidential Social Media Summit” yesterday? I’m emptying my notebook here… There was WAY TOO MUCH to put into a single story last night.
This is admittedly selfish because as a policy nerd reporter I rarely get a 45M POTUS speech to cover. And wow was it something! Hopefully you can read this in about 5 minutes.
(Note: I wasn’t in the room for the whole event, just Trump’s remarks. My notes are admittedly incomplete. Here’s the whole speech )
Scene: The press pool files into the back of the East Room. High ceilings. Yellow curtains. There’s an empty POTUS podium next to an oil painting of GW and 6 American flags. I count~75 people on my half of the room and 2 total MAGA hats.
Notables: @KellyannePolls (who earlier interviewed @DiamondandSilk), @DonaldJTrumpJr @stevenmnuchin1 @SecretaryRoss. @charliekirk11 and @GOPLeader exchange a wave. (McCarthy had also just spoken. The crowd booed when he mentioned a Twitter outage).
Trump walks in. Hail to the Chief plays. He calls the crowd “friends,” and later “journalists and influencers.” “We’re in the White House and we’re going to say in the White House,” he says to applause.
Trump’s off and he alternates between the issue at hand and other talking points/thoughts. 27K on the Dow, he notes to applause. “You’re communicating directly with our citizens without having to go through” the traditional media.
(He didn’t say traditional media, he said Fake News. Many times. I try not to use that term and so won’t repeat it here.)
He recognizes and praises a bunch of official guests. Particularly @Scavino45, “My Dan” who he says communicates with those in the crowd regularly.
Trump: “some of you are extraordinary. The crap you think of is unbelievable.”
He praises @DanCrenshawTX @Liz_Cheney @SecBernhardt @mattgaetz @RepMikeJohnson He calls Sen. Hawley up to the stage
.@hawleymo: If social media companies “want to keep their special deal, here’s the bargain: They have to stop discrminating against conservatives.”
Trump says Hawley is working on “very important” legislation. (He’s got a bill dealing with Section 230)
Trump talks about censorship of conservatives voices and asks “Does anyone know what I’m talking about” Trump Jr.: “We all do!”
Trump mentions MSNBC which leads him to the Apprentice’s great success, a topic he returns to a couple times.
Then he describes his belief that Twitter cuts his followers and also (I hadn’t previously heard this one) that his likes/retweets seem to go down as well as up. Some of the crowd seems to agree this happens to them to.
Trump acknowledges @THEHermanCain. Trump talks about how Trump uses Twitter to get attention to his policy announcements. “We hardly do press releases anymore … If I put it out on social media, it’s like an explosion.”
Trump: “you’re bypassing the corrupt establishment”. “On behalf of our nation, thank you very much.” “You’re getting in many cases the honest word out. Not in all cases but in many cases.”
Trump says Melania turned him on to @DiamondandSilk “two very special people.” He steps off stage to hug them.
Trump talks about the importance of free speech “We will always have your back, we’re fighting for you very hard.”
There was another memorable free speech quote which I didn't fully catch, captured here:
Trump starts riffing. Russian “hoax”. Good polls. Minority/women unemployment. Military strength. An insect is suddenly near him: “I don’t like flies.” He likes @Joy_Villa 's dresses.
Trump says he’s “finishing up”.
Trump: “We have censorship like nobody has any understanding.” He mentions Google, then sees @JamesOKeefeIII and praises his publications about the company. “Stand up please … what a great job.” Applause. O’Keefe beams and later says the president has legitimized his work.
Trump’s on to Democrats. “Pure Socialism”. “beyond socialism to a large extent … There’s a word called communism.” “Our country is going to go one way…” or another in this election, he says somewhat ominously.
He likes the Green New Deal so he can attack it. He called Warren Pocanhontas too early. Biden gets small crowds.
More riffing. He jokes about how wind/rain storms show is hair is real. The wall. Democrats want criminals to pour into America. “They don’t get shut out” of social media.
He complains again about his followers. Now onto China trade. Farmers support him. GDP is high.
Back on script, he calls up @pnjaban who talks about clients alleging censorship and says tech companies lied to Congress.
Trump mentions another of her clients and that gets him talking about Antifa, people in black masks. They wouldn’t attack Bikers for Trump, though, right? Laughter.
He calls up Lila Rose of Live Action, who talks about Twitter limited her ads and Pinterest suspended her, and YouTube gives pro-life videos bad search results. (Twitter says its policies were violated. No comment by Pinterest/Google).
43 minutes in. Trump says social media folks like @jack are super smart. But they’re stifling free speech.
“Some of you I could almost understand,” he says of those in the crowd who may have been censored. “Some of you guys are out there. I mean it’s genius, but it’s bad.”
News! Trump’s going to ask social media companies to the White House. His administration is going to “explore all legislative and regulatory solutions to protect free speech and the free speech of all Americans.”
Back on script: “Big Tech must not censor the voices of the American people.”
Trump says he'll take questions. As @sebgorka asks the first question, the press is ushered out.
