Does Donald Trump’s tweeting help him?

Data analysis shows that his negative tweets help his approval rating, but his attacks on “fake news” fall flat

Most Presidents communicate with the public through regular press briefings and press conferences. But not Donald Trump. His primary means of communication is Twitter. That medium has the advantage of immediacy, but it also results in statements at odds with the policy the rest of the administration is following. In short, he can and frequently does tweet in a fit of pique in the middle of the night without the benefit of calm, thoughtful, consideration or the advice of his advisors. As a result, some have argued that his tweeting is a political net negative to his administration.

On the other hand, his tweeting is prolific. As I write this article, Trump has been in office 681 days. Of those, according to my calculations, he has tweeted at least once 659 days. In total, he has tweeted 4898 times as President for a daily average of nearly 7.5 tweets. That doesn’t include his many retweets or his thousands of tweets from before his inauguration. Clearly, he thinks he is getting something from all this tweeting.

So which is it? Do his tweets hurt him or help him? It’s hard to characterize anything he does as strategic, but if there is anything he has done well as President it is his relentless tweeting. Paul Krugman of…