London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Wednesday, Jul 30, 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

0:00
0:00
Close
Former Judge Charged After Drunk Driving Crash Kills Comedian in Brazil
Jeff Bezos hasn’t paid a dollar in taxes for decades. He makes billions and pays $0 in taxes, LEGALLY
China Increases Use of Exit Bans Amid Rising U.S. Tensions
IMF Upgrades Global Growth Forecast as Weaker Dollar Supports Outlook
Procter & Gamble to Raise U.S. Prices to Offset One‑Billion‑Dollar Tariff Cost
House Republicans Move to Defund OECD Over Global Tax Dispute
Botswana Seeks Controlling Stake in De Beers as Anglo American Prepares Exit
Trump Administration Proposes Repeal of Obama‑Era Endangerment Finding, Dismantling Regulatory Basis for CO₂ Emissions Limits
France Opens Criminal Investigation into X Over Algorithm Manipulation Allegations
A family has been arrested in the UK for displaying the British flag
Mel Gibson refuses to work with Robert De Niro, saying, "Keep that woke clown away from me."
Trump Steamrolls EU in Landmark Trade Win: US–EU Trade Deal Imposes 15% Tariff on European Imports
ChatGPT CEO Sam Altman says people share personal info with ChatGPT but don’t know chats can be used as court evidence in legal cases.
The British propaganda channel BBC News lies again.
Deputy attorney general's second day of meeting with Ghislaine Maxwell has concluded
Controversial March in Switzerland Features Men Dressed in Nazi Uniforms
Politics is a good business: Barack Obama’s Reported Net Worth Growth, 1990–2025
Thai Civilian Death Toll Rises to 12 in Cambodian Cross-Border Attacks
TSUNAMI: Trump Just Crossed the Rubicon—And There’s No Turning Back
Over 120 Criminal Cases Dismissed in Boston Amid Public Defender Shortage
UN's Top Court Declares Environmental Protection a Legal Obligation Under International Law
"Crazy Thing": OpenAI's Sam Altman Warns Of AI Voice Fraud Crisis In Banking
The Podcaster Who Accidentally Revealed He Earns Over $10 Million a Year
Trump Announces $550 Billion Japanese Investment and New Trade Agreements with Indonesia and the Philippines
US Treasury Secretary Calls for Institutional Review of Federal Reserve Amid AI‑Driven Growth Expectations
UK Government Considers Dropping Demand for Apple Encryption Backdoor
Severe Flooding in South Korea Claims Lives Amid Ongoing Rescue Operations
Japanese Man Discovers Family Connection Through DNA Testing After Decades of Separation
Russia Signals Openness to Ukraine Peace Talks Amid Escalating Drone Warfare
Switzerland Implements Ban on Mammography Screening
Japanese Prime Minister Vows to Stay After Coalition Loses Upper House Majority
Pogacar Extends Dominance with Stage Fifteen Triumph at Tour de France
CEO Resigns Amid Controversy Over Relationship with HR Executive
Man Dies After Being Pulled Into MRI Machine Due to Metal Chain in New York Clinic
NVIDIA Achieves $4 Trillion Valuation Amid AI Demand
US Revokes Visas of Brazilian Corrupted Judges Amid Fake Bolsonaro Investigation
U.S. Congress Approves Rescissions Act Cutting Federal Funding for NPR and PBS
North Korea Restricts Foreign Tourist Access to New Seaside Resort
Brazil's Supreme Court Imposes Radical Restrictions on Former President Bolsonaro
Centrist Criticism of von der Leyen Resurfaces as she Survives EU Confidence Vote
Judge Criticizes DOJ Over Secrecy in Dropping Charges Against Gang Leader
Apple Closes $16.5 Billion Tax Dispute With Ireland
Von der Leyen Faces Setback Over €2 Trillion EU Budget Proposal
UK and Germany Collaborate on Global Military Equipment Sales
Trump Plans Over 10% Tariffs on African and Caribbean Nations
Flying Taxi CEO Reclaims Billionaire Status After Stock Surge
Epstein Files Deepen Republican Party Divide
Zuckerberg Faces $8 Billion Privacy Lawsuit From Meta Shareholders
FIFA Pressured to Rethink World Cup Calendar Due to Climate Change
SpaceX Nears $400 Billion Valuation With New Share Sale
×