President Donald Trump is the nation's tweeter-in-chief, and his missives often provoke controversy, even among those who voted for him.
But
there's one tweet that several assembled Trump voters -- who expressed
varying degrees of enthusiasm for the President -- could agree on.
According
to many of his supporters, Trump was wrong about "Saturday Night Live"
being unwatchable and Alec Baldwin's impersonation not being good.
"He has no sense of humor," one tweeted.
"That was hilarious!"
"Humor at its best," another said.
"Alec Baldwin did a fabulous job!"
Trump
has more than 27 million followers on his personal Twitter account,
@realDonaldTrump. Another 16 million people follow his official
presidential account, @POTUS.
To
some, including Trump himself, Twitter offers a chance to bypass media
that they see as biased or dishonest -- and an opportunity for the
country's leader to engage with the masses in the moment.
"I
feel it's a great way to reach out to your constituents and create a
give-and-take, because people obviously respond to his tweets, retweet
the tweets," said Ilene Wood of Emmaus, Pennsylvania. "In general, I'm
in favor of it."
Emma Leach, who
became a die-hard fan of then-candidate Trump after attending a campaign
rally in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, says Trump's use of Twitter
energizes younger people, such as herself.
A few years ago, Leach said, she could have asked a friend what Obama did in office that day, and she wouldn't have known.
"But today she'll know what Trump tweeted or what Trump did or what executive order happened," Leach said. "She's involved now."
Of
the Trump voters that CNN spoke with in eastern Pennsylvania, two
months into Trump's term, most didn't mind that the President uses such
an unorthodox method of communication.
"It's
like a modern-day constituent letter," Leach said. "They're tweeting at
their president, they're voicing their opinion, and they're more
politically involved."
But the immediacy is a double-edged sword.
"In
some situations, that's an excellent thing because he's able to get the
word out very quickly and perhaps get reactions and responses back,"
said Wood. "But at the same time, it creates a possibility of engaging
your mouth before you've engaged your brain."
Scott McCommons of Altoona, is a lifelong Democrat who crossed party lines to vote for Trump and follows Trump on Twitter.
"I
think he rants and raves. He doesn't think about it," said McCommons,
who said his opinion of Trump has changed for the worse, in large part
because of his tweeting. "I think he can do a lot better things with his
time."
McCommons said he now
regrets his vote, going so far as to tweet at Trump, "Your twitter rants
are out of control - I voted for you to make America great again, run
the country sir!"
No comments: