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THREAD: As the founding head of @TwitterGov, I have long been a vocal defender of @Twitter’s permissiveness of @realDonaldTrump’s otherwise-violations of Twitter Rules (1/11)
The “newsworthiness” exemption often held true. If the President was a madman or a fraud, or both, let the spotlight shine on it for the populace to see. Don’t have a private company shield the public gaze from the meltdown and pretend the emperor has clothes. (2/11)
The time for that sunlight has long passed. No one can claim ignorance to his delusion; the citizenry has already chosen whether to swill the toxic Kool Aid. A few more Tweets or less won’t affect that. (3/11)
The stronger argument was always that there was something exceptional about the presidency. That there are actions, when taken by the President, that must be held to a different standard than when taken by a private individual. (4/11)
An early example of this was a series of @realDonaldTrump Tweets threatening the North Korean regime early in his term. Violent threats such as these would normally violate the law and Twitter Rules. (5/11)
But threats by the President to another power are a statement of foreign policy. Indeed, the POTUS is the ONLY one empowered by the law to make such threats. As such, the POTUS is the ONLY one that should be exempt from the Twitter Rules here as well. That remains true. (6/11)
Similarly, the President takes a unique oath to “protect and defend the Constitution of the United States” and the processes it enshrines. “Normal” Twitter users take no such oath. (7/11)
The President is also, more than ANY OTHER PERSON, directed by the Constitution to remain arms-length from the Congress. The separation of the Executive from meddling in the business of the Legislative can be considered the core focus of the founding document itself. (8/11)
So yes, the President remains an exceptional case. Just as the President was uniquely EXEMPT from policies potentially violated in cases like the N. Korea Tweets and others, his actions yesterday were uniquely flagrant violations SPECIFICALLY because he is the President. (9/11)
Accordingly, @Twitter should follow @Facebook’s lead and suspend @realDonaldTrump’s account. (10/11)
I say this knowing full well the action would likely feed his narrative and bears little to no impact, but it is the only policy consistent with the application of presidential exemptions applied to date. (11/11)
