A large majority of Americans wants the President-elect to delete his account on Twitter, a new survey has concluded.
Overall, 64% of people say they want Donald Trump to shut down his personal Twitter account, according to a poll by Quinnipiac University. The view was shared across all parties, genders and age groups, with those aged 18 to 34 most wanting him to stop the tweets coming, by a 71-26 margin.
Voters self-identifying as Democrats and independents overwhelmingly want Trump to lose his Twitter account, by margins of 80-18 and 65-31 respectively. Those self-identifying as Republicans were more on the fence: 49% think he can keep the account, while 45% of them say he shouldn’t.
Used liberally to address supporters and harass opponents alike, @realDonaldTrump currently boasts over 19.4 million followers, with over 34,000 messages sent. Trump’s Twitter feed has constantly been in the headlines, whether before or after his Nov. 9 electoral victory. (There’s now even an app that aims to help traders trade stocks based on his tweets.)
As a recent example, Trump called actress Meryl Streep “over-rated” in response to her Golden Globes acceptance speech. Earlier, he slammed media coverage of whether Mexico would actually pay for his proposed border wall, and defended his alleged coziness with Russia.
Dishonest media says Mexico won't be paying for the wall if they pay a little later so the wall can be built more quickly. Media is fake!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 9, 2017
Having a good relationship with Russia is a good thing, not a bad thing. Only "stupid" people, or fools, would think that it is bad! We…..
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 7, 2017
“One hundred and forty characters may not be enough to tell Donald Trump just how much Americans want him to knock off the tweeting,” a media statement from Quinnipiac quoted the poll’s assistant director Tim Malloy as saying.
As a phrase often invoked in the Twitterverse to call out inappropriate comments, “delete your account” gained mainstream recognition last June, when Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton’s official Twitter account tweeted that phrase in response to Trump, who pilloried President Barack Obama’s endorsement of Clinton in a tweet.
Delete your account. Https://t.co/Oa92sncRQY
— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) June 9, 2016
However, Trump’s presence on Twitter could soon expand rather than vanish. According to CNN, Trump will inherit the official White House Twitter handle @POTUS— currently managed by President Barack Obama and his team — and incoming press secretary Sean Spicer has suggested that the President-elect, after taking office, could tweet from both @POTUS and @realDonaldTrump.
For more on Donald Trump’s use of Twitter, see Coins2Day’s video
Quinnipiac’s poll was conducted with live phone interviewers between Jan. 5 and 9, with a sample size of 899 voters across the U.S. And a 3.3% margin of error.
