Saudi Press

Saudi Arabia and the world
Monday, Jun 02, 2025

Trump needs Twitter. Twitter needs Trump. Who needs who more?

Trump needs Twitter. Twitter needs Trump. Who needs who more?

The clash between President Trump and Twitter reached new heights over the past few days. Twitter started to more rigorously police Trump’s posts, while Trump tried to weaken legal protections that shield social media companies like Twitter from liability for what their users post.
But as Trump tries to clamp down on Twitter, and Twitter similarly cracks down on the President’s posts, one question remains: Who needs who more?

Three experts say the answer is simple: Trump, who depends on Twitter to reach his base, especially during an election year that revolves around the global pandemic.

“Right now, traditional campaigning is going to be at best problematic through at least summer,” said Steven Livingston, director of the Institute for Data, Democracy, and Politics at George Washington University. “By picking a fight with Twitter, he’s actually attacking the principal mechanism he needs to run in a COVID environment.”

While Twitter may be Trump’s favorite way to reach his supporters, Twitter, which generated $1 billion in revenue in 2019, relies very little on him, said Ronald Josey, analyst at investment bank JMP Securities. The service has nearly 33 million daily active U.S. users. If Trump quit Twitter, relatively few of his 80 million followers would leave, Josey says. And they would account for only a sliver of the service’s revenue.

“If he were to leave, it would have a small impact on users and an even smaller impact on monetizable users,” Josey says. Twitter is “very diversified in terms of traffic.”

The rift between Trump and Twitter heated up on Tuesday after Twitter, for the first time, labeled as misinformation one of the President’s tweets about mail-in voting. In the days that followed, Trump threatened “big action” against social media and then signed an executive order aimed at removing legal protections for social media companies.

Unbowed, Twitter again went after Trump on Friday for tweeting, in part, “when the looting starts, the shooting starts,” referring to the riots in Minneapolis. The company appended its first-ever warning specifically for politicians, telling users that the tweet had glorified violence. To view the actual tweet, users must click on the disclaimer.

For years, Trump has criticized social media companies, arguing, along with fellow conservatives, that the services unfairly censored their posts. Meanwhile, liberals complained that social media companies failed to delete posts containing hate speech and violence.

Trump’s executive order does little to help him achieve his ultimate goal, which is the freedom to say whatever he wants online. If regulators weakened the current federal protections for social media companies, Twitter and Facebook would likely ratchet up their policing of content rather than ease it, experts agree.

“He’s so angry they did something to him, he’s slapping back at them,” says Joshua Tucker, professor of politics and codirector of the Center for Social Media and Politics at New York University. “The irony of this is…he is pushing us toward a world where the platforms are going to be much quicker to pull down content.”

Trump often says that Twitter is the only outlet that lets him reach Americans directly without a news media filter. And he obsessively uses it to air his grievances, stoke controversy, and threaten companies and world leaders. “Twitter is such a powerful political tool for Trump that it’s inconceivable he would give it up,” Tucker said. “What would he do all day?”

He was asked as much on Thursday. Trump responded that he wouldn’t quit tweeting, because he uses Twitter to fact-check “fake news.” “If we had a fair press in this country, I would do that in a heartbeat,” he said of leaving Twitter, though it was hardly convincing. “There’s nothing I’d rather do than get rid of my whole Twitter account.”

Trump could always leave Twitter for another social media service, like Facebook, which has been more lax in how it polices political speech. But he may not be able to attack other politicians as effectively as he does on Twitter. There is “value in the network because there are other people on it that you want to be with,” Tucker said.

Trump’s followers give Twitter more traffic. And all traffic is good traffic, Josey of JMP said. But when it comes down to business, Trump’s absence does not pose an existential threat to the company. However, it does complicate matters for the country’s tweeter-in-chief.
Newsletter

Related Articles

Saudi Press
0:00
0:00
Close
Paris Saint-Germain's Greatest Triumph Is Football’s Lowest Point
OPEC+ Agrees to Increase Oil Output for Third Consecutive Month
Turkey Detains Istanbul Officials Amid Anti-Corruption Crackdown
Meta and Anduril Collaborate on AI-Driven Military Augmented Reality Systems
EU Central Bank Pushes to Replace US Dollar with Euro as World’s Main Currency
European and Arab Ministers Convene in Madrid to Address Gaza Conflict
U.S. Health Secretary Ends Select COVID-19 Vaccine Recommendations
Trump Warns Putin Is 'Playing with Fire' Amid Escalating Ukraine Conflict
India and Pakistan Engage Trump-Linked Lobbyists to Influence U.S. Policy
U.S. Halts New Student Visa Interviews Amid Enhanced Security Measures
Trump Administration Cancels $100 Million in Federal Contracts with Harvard
SpaceX Starship Test Flight Ends in Failure, Mars Mission Timeline Uncertain
King Charles Affirms Canadian Sovereignty Amid U.S. Statehood Pressure
Iranian Revolutionary Guard Founder Warns Against Trusting Regime in Nuclear Talks
UAE Offers Free ChatGPT Plus Subscriptions to Citizens
Lebanon Initiates Plan to Disarm Palestinian Factions
Iran and U.S. Make Limited Progress in Nuclear Talks
The Daily Debate: The Fall of the Dollar — Strategic Reset or Economic Self-Destruction?
Trump Administration's Tariff Policies and Dollar Strategy Spark Global Economic Debate
OpenAI Acquires Jony Ive’s Startup for $6.5 Billion to Build a Revolutionary “Third Core Device”
Turkey Weighs Citizens in Public as Erdoğan Launches National Slimming Campaign
Saudi-Spanish Business Forum Commences in Riyadh
Saudi Arabia and Spain Sign MoU to Boost SME Sectors
UK Suspends Trade Talks with Israel Amid Gaza Offensive
Iran and U.S. Set for Fifth Round of Nuclear Talks Amid Rising Tensions
Russia Expands Military Presence Near Finland Amid Rising Tensions
Indian Scholar Arrested in Crackdown Over Pakistan Conflict Commentary
Israel Eases Gaza Blockade Amid Internal Dispute Over Military Strategy
President Biden’s announcement of advanced prostate cancer sparked public sympathy—but behind closed doors, Democrats are in panic
A Chinese company made solar tiles that look way nicer than regular panels!
Indian jet shootdown: the all-robot legion behind China’s PL-15E missiles
The Chinese Dragon: The True Winner in the India-Pakistan Clash
Australia's Venomous Creatures Contribute to Life-Saving Antivenom Programme
The Spanish Were Right: Long Working Hours Harm Brain Function
Did Former FBI Director Call for Violence Against Trump? Instagram Post Sparks Uproar
US and UAE Partner to Develop Massive AI Data Center Complex
Apple's $95 Million Siri Settlement: Eligible Users Have Until July 2 to File Claims
US and UAE Reach Preliminary Agreement on Nvidia AI Chip Imports
President Trump and Elon Musk Welcomed by Emir of Qatar Sheikh Tamim with Cybertruck Convoy
Strong Warning Issued: Do Not Use General Chatbots for Medical, Legal, or Educational Guidance
Saudi Arabia Emerges as Global Tech Magnet with U.S. Backing and Trump’s Visit
This was President's departure from Saudi Arabia. The Crown Prince personally escorted him back to the airport.
NVIDIA and Saudi Arabia Launch Strategic Partnership to Establish AI Centers
Trump Meets Syrian President Ahmad al-Shara in Historic Encounter
Trump takes a blow torch to the neocons and interventionists while speaking to the Saudis
US and Saudi Arabia Sign Landmark Agreements Across Multiple Sectors
Why Saudi Arabia Rolled Out a Purple Carpet for Donald Trump Instead of Red
Elon Musk Joins Trump Meeting in Saudi Arabia
Trump says it would be 'stupid' not to accept gift of Qatari plane
Quantum Computing Threatens Bitcoin Security
×