Among Donald Trump’s qualities that have become newly unsettling with his election as president of the United States is his lack of impulse control, exhibited once again Saturday evening on the medium which most enables it: Twitter.
Trump had started his day on the social network—where, let’s not forget, his handle begins with the word “real”—spouting off about his Trump University settlement before launching into a factually barren attack on the cast of the broadway musical, Hamilton, where vice president-elect Mike Pence was booed by the audience on Friday when he came to see the show.
Trump demanded that the cast of the play “Apologize!” to Pence, a characteristic move for a former reality TV star, but a strange order from a man who will be sworn in as Commander in Chief in sixty-two days. He said “The Theater must always be a safe and special place” (tell that to Lincoln) and the cast “was very rude” to Pence, never mind that the star of the show told the audience there was no reason to boo, and had himself made a polite and eloquent appeal to Pence for mutual respect and civility.
The rest of the president-elect’s Saturday was spent somewhat more traditionally.
At his golf course in Bedminster, New Jersey, he met with 2012 Republican nominee and current secretary of state prospect, Mitt Romney, for an hour and twenty minutes around 1 p.m.
But Trump is notoriously short attention spanned, and his presidential duties still couldn’t shake his aggravation with the Broadway actors. By 7:32 p.m., he was back online with more to say.
“Very rude and insulting of Hamilton cast member to treat our great future V.P. Mike Pence to a theater lecture,” Trump Tweeted, “Couldn’t even memorize lines!”
And then, within half an hour, the Tweet was gone.
A spokesperson didn’t immediately respond when asked why he deleted it, but the episode—silly as it seems amid this Trump fatigue we’re all suffering from—is a troubling development in the nascent Trump transition to the White House, which has thus far been a series of events confirming the president-elect hasn’t been humbled by the enormity of his new position in the world, but in fact may see his election as proof that his personality, including or most importantly its least savory facets, is winning.
It goes without saying that the United States is now the only first world country whose incoming president moonlights as a cultural critic online. It’s too early to guess what this will ultimately mean for our status in the world, but the future looks bleak.
One thing we can say for certain as of Saturday night: Trump definitely wrestled his phone back from Kellyanne Conway.
