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from the why-do-we-let-him-get-away-wiht-this-behavior dept.
Alexander Burns and Maggie Haberman write in The New York Times that, with his enormous online platform of six million followers, Donald Trump has used Twitter to badger and humiliate those who have dared cross him during the presidential race, latching on to their vulnerabilities, mocking their physical characteristics, personality quirks and, sometimes, their professional setbacks. Trump has made statements that have later been exposed as false or deceptive — only after they have ricocheted across the Internet.
For example, Cheri Jacobus, a Republican political strategist, did not think she had done anything out of the ordinary: On a cable television show, she criticized Donald J. Trump for skipping a debate in Iowa in late January and described him as a "bad debater." Trump took to Twitter, repeatedly branding Jacobus as a disappointed job seeker who had begged to work for his campaign and had been rejected. "We said no and she went hostile," Trump wrote. "A real dummy!" Trump's campaign manager told the same story on MSNBC's "Morning Joe." For days, Trump's followers replied to his posts with demeaning, often sexually charged insults aimed at Jacobus, including several with altered, vulgar photographs of her face.
It is not just that Trump has a skill for zeroing in on an individual's soft spot and hammering at it. It is that he sets a tone of aggression against the person, and his supporters echo and amplify it. Jacobus sent a cease-and-desist letter to Trump and his top aide, citing electronic messages that showed the Trump campaign had courted her and not the other way around. "I have been trashed and ruined on Twitter," Jacobus says adding that Trump's lawyers had responded to her letter, but that they had not yet reached a resolution.
This week, Trump sent out a menacing message on Twitter about the Ricketts family, a wealthy clan of Republican political donors, after it was reported that Marlene Ricketts donated $3 million to a group opposed to Trump's candidacy. "They better be careful," Trump wrote of the family, "they have a lot to hide!" "It's a little surreal when Donald Trump threatens your mom," Marlene Ricketts's son, Tom, later told reporters.
"At what point does it cross the line into something that's defamatory and might be actionable?" says Parry Aftab, a lawyer who leads the Internet safety group WiredSafety. "At what point does it cross the line into encouraging violence against groups and individuals?"
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Empyrean on Sunday February 28 2016, @08:09PM
Do you Americans really want someone who constantly hurls childish insults as your President? If a candidate (liberal or conservative) did that in my country they would be at the bottom of the polls in no time.
(Score: 3, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 28 2016, @09:02PM
That's why your country sucks.
U-S-A! U-S-A!
(Score: 2) by jmorris on Sunday February 28 2016, @11:55PM
You didn't make the last meeting. Now we chant "Trump! Trump! Trump!"
It was hilarious watching that video of the protesters trying to break up Milo Yiannopoulo's speech and the crowd, without any apparent prompting, spontaneously erupted in "Trump! Trump! Trump!" and drowned out and eventually drove away the protesters.
We live in interesting times.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Zz9zZ on Sunday February 28 2016, @09:52PM
A large minority do, most are horrified that Trump is so popular. Personally I think a lot of the support stems from the fact that Trump is legitimizing the latent prejudice of many people, often the older generations.
~Tilting at windmills~
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 28 2016, @11:00PM
Trump is showing how shallow many of us have become, interacting with social media all day and clicking on celebrity news.
Of course, the ancient Greeks and Romans went through these kinds of cycles too, and that's why they didn't last.
(Score: 2) by BK on Monday February 29 2016, @01:28AM
So you're disqualified then?
Americans have always had a warm place in their heart for plain-spoken politicians. And European aristocracy has always looked down on this.
...but you HAVE heard of me.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 29 2016, @01:58PM
So you're disqualified then
Are you suggesting foreigners are not allowed to participate in this conversation because we still enjoy a modicum of civility in our public political discourse?
(Score: 2) by BK on Monday February 29 2016, @02:26PM
Hardly. But if name-calling should be a disqualifier, then you should look to yourself first.
...but you HAVE heard of me.