Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) shared his true thoughts about President Trump’s online presence on the latest episode of “Pod Force One,” revealing that he believes the 45th and 47th president would benefit from reigning in his relentless posting pace.
“He’s unruly,” Kennedy told The Post’s Miranda Devine on the new podcast, out Wednesday. “I told him one time, I said, ‘Mr. President, your problem is you grow anxious when you have an unexpressed thought.’ He just says anything. He says everything.’”
Asked whether the Poster-in-Chief was rankled by the suggestion, the Louisiana Republican replied, “He was cool about it.”
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“He asked me, ‘How do you like my tweets?’” Kennedy recounted. “I said, ‘Mr. President, don’t take this the wrong way. But tweeting a little bit less would not cause brain damage.’ And he looked at me, said, ‘You don’t like my tweets.’ I said, ‘No, I didn’t say that.’ I said, ‘I like steak, but I don’t like eight steaks at one time. And you can’t just say everything that comes in your head.’”
Trump used Twitter, now X, to boost his profile before and during his successful 2016 campaign — in part through promoting the “birther” conspiracy that former President Barack Obama was not born in the US — and embraced social media as a way to communicate directly with his supporters.
Other viral tweets, including a late-night reference in a May 2017 viral post to a neologism, “covfefe” — widely considered to be a mangled spelling of “coverage” — vexed the Washington press corps.
Former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon has said the “operating style” made Trump a successful “counter puncher” against dishonest narratives in the media.
“I think President Trump has his own operating style,” Bannon told CBS News in a February 2019 interview. “You punch him, he’s gonna punch you back harder.”
“He’s 70 years old; he’s got a certain house style. It made him president of the United States,” he added of the president’s pervasive Twitter usage. “You’re not going to change that.”
“I think you saw that in the 2018 election,” Bannon also said, “that house style doesn’t play with everybody, I think that that is one of the things, particularly in the suburbs and particularly among independent and Republican women. … I think you saw some blowback on that.”
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“He speaks in the vernacular that’s really into the gut and into the hearts of people,” the “War Room” host noted.
After Twitter kicked Trump off the platform in the wake of the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot, Trump founded Truth Social, where he almost daily breaks news of significant foreign policy developments, domestic priorities and even acts of clemency.
Trump currently has more than 110 million followers on X. On Truth Social, the president has nearly 11 million.
“The American people get it,” Kennedy said of Trump’s online and offline idiosyncracies. “I’m not saying my party’s perfect, but I think this is the way most Americans look at it today.”
“People look at their choice, Democrat, Republican. They say, ‘Well, Republicans aren’t perfect, but the other side’s crazy.’ And that’s why they elected President Trump. They know all about President Trump.”
