President Trump speaks about the power of social media before traveling to Los Angeles on Tuesday.
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Yeah, I have total confidence in my Attorney General.
REPORTER: And do you agree with his statement that he — that you should stop tweeting about Justice Department issues?
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Well, people like that. But, you know, everybody has the right to speak their mind. And I use social media. I guess I use it well, because here I am. I’m here. And I probably wouldn’t have gotten here without social media because I certainly don’t get fair press.
So I wouldn’t have gotten here without social media and, perhaps, with all of the hoaxes. You had the impeachment hoax, you had the Mueller hoax, you had the “Russia, Russia, Russia” nonsense. All scams. And if I didn’t have social media, I probably wouldn’t be here. So I’m very happy with social media.
But I think he’s doing an excellent job. He’s a strong guy. I never spoke to him about the Roger Stone situation. Roger Stone, just so you know, never worked — he didn’t work for my campaign. There might’ve been a time — way early, long before I announced — where he was somehow involved a little bit. But he was not involved in our campaign at all. And I think it was a very, very rough thing that happened to Roger Stone.
Because when you look what happened with Comey after a 78-page, horrific report, when you look at what happened to McCabe with a recommendation of prosecution, and you look at all of these other people, and then you look at what happened to General Flynn, a highly respected man — look at — I mean, his life has been destroyed. If you’re looking at Roger Stone for a tweet and some other things — you take a look at what’s happening to these people. Somebody has to stick up for the people.
So, my social media is very powerful. I guess, Mark Zuckerberg just recently said, “Trump is number one in the world” on social media, which is a very nice statement, I guess. Certainly it’s something you can be at least a little bit proud of. But it means I have a voice so I’m able to fight the fake news.
REPORTER: Has the Attorney General threatened to resign over your tweets? And then, also, he said that your comments on Twitter are making it “impossible” to do his job. Are you making his job impossible?
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Well, but it allows me — yeah, I do make his job harder. I do agree with that. I think that’s true. He’s a very straight shooter. We have a great Attorney General, and he’s working very hard. And he’s working against a lot of people that don’t want to see good things happen, in my opinion. That’s my opinion, not his opinion. That’s my opinion. You’ll have to ask what his opinion is.
But I will say this: Social media, for me, has been very important because it gives me a voice, because I don’t get that voice in the press. In the media, I don’t get that voice. So I’m allowed to have a voice.
