Election analyst: Trump should use Twitter like FDR used radio for fireside chats

“What he should be doing it as is treating Twitter the way that Franklin Roosevelt treated radio back in the ’30s … with the fireside chats,” Olsen, a senior fellow at the conservative Ethics and Public Policy Center, told Hill.TV’s Joe Concha on “What America’s Thinking.” 

 

Roosevelt used the radio addresses in order to inform the American people about government responses to the Great Depression and World War II. 

 

“Back then, the news media was Republican, believe it or not, and it hated him, so he bypassed the news media by going directly to the American people through fireside chats,” he continued. 

 

“That’s what Twitter is for Trump, and he should be treating it that way, which means there should be some degree of decorum and attempt to actually speak to the nation as a whole, rather than using it in the way that he does.” 

 

Trump has access to two Twitter handles, his personal @realdonaldtrump account, from which he tweets regularly, and the official @POTUS account. 

 

He frequently uses his personal account to go after his critics and opponents. 

 

“I think this is a question between the tactic and the message,” Olsen said later on the show. “Getting around an extremely hostile media is the right tactic, but the message that he does reinforces only [the] message and attitude that his base [has]. And his base is not even all of his voters. There are many people who voted for him reluctantly on Election Day.”