GOP rep: Trump’s tweets ‘very ill advised’

Rep. John Faso (R-N.Y.) on Tuesday urged President Trump to reevaluate his Twitter habits, arguing many of the president’s tweets are “very ill advised.”

“I think the tweeting is very ill-advised,” he said on MSNBC. “I would hope the president would rethink this.”

Faso’s remarks come after Tuesday tweets from Trump slammed Qatar, a key U.S. ally in the Middle East.

“Look, he’s going to do what he wants to do,” Faso, a Democratic target in the 2018 midterms, added. “I would urge caution on the president. Obviously it’s good for him to be able to reach out to the American people.”

{mosads}“But I think on certain things it goes into areas that are perhaps not beneficial to the nation and especially not beneficial to our international relationships.”

Trump used Twitter Tuesday to take credit for U.S. allies like the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia cutting off relations with Qatar, which hosts a major U.S. military base. Trump said Qatar’s new diplomatic and commercial isolation could be “the beginning of the end” for terrorism — an apparent about-face in U.S. policy that Pentagon officials declined to comment on.

Trump earlier Tuesday accused the media of trying to silence his Twitter use, arguing reporters “hate” his posts on the social media platform.

“The FAKE MSM is working so hard trying to get me not to use Social Media,” he tweeted. “They hate that I can get the honest and unfiltered message out.”

“Sorry folks, but if I would have relied on the Fake News of CNN, NBC, ABC, CBS, washpost or nytimes, I would have had ZERO chance of winning WH,” Trump added in a separate tweet.

Trump has long used Twitter to comment on current events, attack critics and dispute media reports about his administration.

Legal experts say Trump’s recurring calls earlier this week on Twitter for a tougher version of his immigration executive order could undermine his administration’s effort to reinstate the controversial policy. The tweets prompted George T. Conway III, a former top candidate for a high-ranking Justice Department position and the husband of White House counselor Kellyanne Conway, to send his own tweets suggesting that Trump’s Twitter messages would hurt his legal case.

Trump called the order “a travel ban” five times in a 24-hour stretch between Sunday and Monday, potentially complicating efforts from Justice Department lawyers to litigate the measure.

The president’s temporary ban would halt travelers to the U.S. from Libya, Iran, Somalia, Syria, Sudan and Yemen.