Tapper to Trump: Spend more time tweeting about troops

CNN anchor Jake Tapper pushed back on President Trump’s Twitter habits on Saturday, arguing that the president uses the platform more for maintaining his personal feuds with the media than for advancing his policy goals.

More than 10% of tweets fr @realDonaldTrump as president have been attacking journalists. Far fewer discussing troops, opioid crisis, Syria

— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) July 1, 2017

2/ …North Korea, Assad, punishment of Russia for election interference, how to deal with debt/deficit, famine in Africa, education, …

— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) July 1, 2017

3/ plans to rebuild US crumbling infrastructure, tweets specifically using the word “jobs,” what to do in Ukraine, crisis in Venezuela,…

— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) July 1, 2017

4/ attacking media does nothing for the troop in harm’s way, the hungry child in Appalachia or inner city, the unemployed factory worker.

— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) July 1, 2017

But God bless America to all of you, including @realDonaldTrump, and Happy 4th of July pic.twitter.com/WeHxYstQIk

— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) July 1, 2017

{mosads}

The tweets came after Trump launched a barrage of attacks on major U.S. news networks and television personalities, including CNN and MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” co-hosts Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough.

In a succession of tweets on Saturday, Trump accused MSNBC’s parent company of firing anchor Greta Van Susteren because she refused to cover the president and his administration negatively. He also blasted CNN, asserting that the network had been caught promulgating “fake news” and accusing it of “garbage journalism.”

Trump has been criticized by lawmakers on both sides of the aisle of using his Twitter account to distract from important policy matters and legislative efforts, including the current healthcare fight in Congress.

Trump has for years been a vocal presence on the social media site, and frequently used the platform on the campaign trail to attack critics and political opponents.

That habit hasn’t subsided since he took office in January.

But Tapper argued Saturday that by using Twitter to launch personal attacks, Trump is doing little to help the voters that sent him to the White House.