A defining aspect of former President Donald Trump's tenure in the White House was his use of social media—especially Twitter.
Tweeting or retweeting dozens or even hundreds of times a day, the former President would use his allotted 280 characters to announce firings, berate his enemies, or amplify conspiracy theories, especially regarding the lie that the 2020 election was "stolen" by Democrats, whom he claimed orchestrated widespread election fraud.
After these lies prompted a mob of his extremist supporters to storm the United States Capitol in hopes of upending the joint congressional session acknowledging now-President Joe Biden's victory, Trump was permanently banned from Twitter and remains indefinitely banned from Facebook and Instagram.
Since then, Trump has begun issuing would-be tweets as official statements from the "Office of the 45th President." Meanwhile, President Joe Biden's tweets are far less off-the-cuff and almost universally stick to promoting his policies and broadcasting his victories.
Texas Republican Senator John Cornyn highlighted this by quoting a piece from Politico about the Biden White House's media strategy.
The president is not doing cable news interviews. Tweets from his account are limited and, when they come, unimaginably conventional. The public comments are largely scripted. Biden has opted for fewer sit down interviews with mainstream outlets and reporters.
— Senator John Cornyn (@JohnCornyn) April 12, 2021
Invites the question: is he really in charge?
— Senator John Cornyn (@JohnCornyn) April 12, 2021
Cornyn highlighted the oxymoronic claim that Biden's tweets are "unimaginably conventional," which was decried by many as the mistaken belief that a President's Twitter account should be a form of entertainment, rather than an arm of political messaging.
At a daily White House press briefing on Monday, press secretary Jen Psaki was asked about Cornyn's tweet.
Psaki said in response to the sentiment:
"I can confirm that the President of the United States does not spend his time tweeting conspiracy theories. He spends his time working on behalf of the American people."
Cornyn later emphasized that he was only highlighting excerpts of the Politico article.
All the same, social media users hailed Psaki's answer.
Meanwhile, the "unimaginably conventional" quip earned widespread backlash.
By and large, Americans seem content not worrying about the President's Twitter timeline being unimaginably erratic.
