Trump vs. Media. Treatment of the press from the US president’s twitter account

This article examines President Donald Trump’s treatment on Twitter towards the US media during his first six months in office, from January 20 to July 20, 2017. Based on a content analysis of the tweets published in the account @realDonaldTrump, we study the mentions to the media and their tone, and the presence and use of keywords related to the media. In addition, we analyze Trump’s treatment of the press in relation to political control and the role of journalism as watchdog of democracy. As main conclusions it is noted that Trump, in a very simplistic way, praises those media that treat him positively and criticizes those that –in his view- portrait him negatively, which are often dubbed as fake news. Through this process, Trump avoids the mediator role of the media and rejects the watchdog role that democratic systems have attributed to them.