Last week left New Yorkers with saddened hearts and fearful minds as we experience the aftermath of the deadliest terrorist attack New York City has seen since 9/11.
While my thoughts on Donald Trump as a leader remain irrelevant to this article, my thoughts on his mess of a twitter account have taken front and center stage. The way Trump has used twitter recklessly as his diary alludes strongly to the problem with social media in this day in age, and the problem with impulsivity in leaders. The two don't mesh — they never have and they never will.
On that dreaded day, Donald Trump’s first announcement regarding the terrorist attack read as follows: “In NYC, looks like another attack by a very sick and deranged person. Law enforcement is following this closely. NOT IN THE U.S.A.!” But it did happen in the USA. It happened in one of the most secure states in our nation, a state that knows much too well the pain of massive tragedy. The absolutely detached and inhuman response, almost as if the lives lost were not lives at all but rather points to a statement, is so telling. It is a telling tale of an angry man who doesn't think before he speaks. A man who is so set in his discriminatory ways thinking that will lower terrorism, yet here we are with a member of ISIS requesting an ISIS flag be placed in his hospital room as he reflects on the lives he just took.
Donald Trump is no stranger to outrageous and shocking statements. You know that one person in your friend group who always has to say something that silences the whole room. Grab everyone’s attention by the power of the verbatim itself. A whopping near 42 million people follow Donald Trump on twitter, entailing they read his tweets: each and every one. These 42 some odd million people share those tweets with their thousands of followers, and then those individuals share it with their followers, and so on and so forth. So, in essence, Trump is sending these tweets to an absolutely global audience. It is no secret that Trump is blatant, blunt, and brutal. In fact, this is one of his characteristics he is most known for. A characteristic people reflected on as they checked his name on the ballot. For lack of a better term, Donald Trump trims the bull shit. What you see is what you get, and he is not afraid to speak his mind. This is certainly a quality I look for in a leader. In fact, this is a quality I look for in friends and in relationships: honesty. Transparency. The problem here; however, lies in the way in which Donald Trump is transparent. Most of us, by our social skills, are able to determine what should and should not be said in certain times and places. Donald Trump is not. To lead a country like the United States of America, and be so whimsical, so reckless, with one’s approach to tragedy and massive events, is dangerous. It is not dangerous in it's lack of political correctness, or it's insensitivity, but rather it is dangerous because of the lack of restraint. If you can't show restraint on Twitter, how are you going to show restraint in a crisis situation with people who do not agree with you? Trump’s frightening impulsivity is mirrored in every tweet he sends out. It is telling of his personality and character, a personality and character that holds the codes to nuclear weapons… It is one thing to be fragile and get offended by someone’s words. It is an entirely different story to fear a leader of this magnitude’s laughable recklessness, represented on a small scale by his social media, and on a bigger scale what we fear we may see in the near future.
9pm Tuesday night, Trump finally acted as the leader he must be in times of crisis like this, tweeting out: “Just spoke to President Macri of Argentina about the five proud and wonderful men killed in the West Side terror attack. God be with them!”
Who leads us represents us. Take a scroll through Donald Trump’s twitter page. A social media profile resembling that of an angry old man in his basement who seems to have something to say about everything: whether that's contradicting himself, stating facts that are just blatantly false to back his points, or plainly being inhuman and cruel. Consider the power he holds in his two hands. Consider the power in every tweet. As you let that marinade, show some love for the savage who deactivated his twitter for the day late this past week.
Maybe if Donald Trump spent as much time leading and enforcing real effective change as he does tweeting about it, New York City wouldn't be trembling in fear tonight.
Donald Trump, whenever you're ready to make America great again, we're ready too. It's time to deactivate your Twitter and show us you have what it takes to lead our great nation.
