Trump leads its slates with world leaders in 280 characters

In the wave of the US president, governments around the world use Twitter accounts to communicate decisions - and solve problems with other countries

In a meeting with Republican and Democrat congressmen on the very delicate immigration reform, on January 11, US President Donald Trump referred to Haiti, El Salvador, and African nations as "shitholes," or " countries of shit. " The aggression, reported by parliamentarians attending the meeting with the Washington Post and The New York Times, left the American press once again searching for words to describe Trump's erratic behavior - eventually finding the inevitable "racist." As TV presenters discussed the repercussions that the episode would have both internally and for US diplomacy, Trump went to Twitter not to defend himself (which he would only do hours later), but to deal with another diplomatic row, started right there on the platform months earlier. Trump announced that it was canceling its expected visit to London, scheduled for this month, for the inauguration of the United States embassy in the British capital. Trump justified himself. He said the reason for the cancellation was his perception that the move from the embassy to another building had been a "bad deal" made by former President Barack Obama - in fact, the decision was not even Obama's, but George W. Bush's. Trump thus wasted the opportunity to reconnect with British Prime Minister Theresa May. He used Twitter once again to communicate his decisions to leaders from other countries.

Donald Trump is the current political leader with more followers on Twitter. In October of last year, he overtook Pope Francis, who was the first on the list with more than 39 million followers in his accounts in several languages. According to Twiplomacy, a study by the Burson-Marsteller communications agency analyzing the behavior of world leaders in social networks, Trump brought 9 million new users to Twitter only in the first quarter of 2017. Trump is also the most engaged politician in the network: in a year, held 166 million interactions. He follows only 45 other accounts, from personalities, relatives, TV programs and presenters, and from his own private ventures. But it uses the platform to interact with voters and leaders from other countries with an astonishing naturalness.

                                     Since the emergence of the network in 2007, governments and political personalities have begun to navigate this world of instant, public and mass communication. Barack Obama created his account while still an Illinois senator. According to the Twiplomacy study, there are currently 856 Twitter accounts owned by heads of government, foreign ministries and their institutions in a total of 178 countries. Latin American rulers are the most active. The Mexican government, for example, publishes on average 123 tweet per day. Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro posts about 82 a day. Many politicians also have accounts on other social networks, such as Instagram and Snapchat, but Twitter is still the most popular platform among them. On the one hand, the presence of world leaders and chancelleries on Twitter makes diplomatic activities more transparent. "One of the great criticisms historically made of diplomacy - not country-specific, but as an activity between states - is that it has always been very distant from the interests of the population," says Guilherme Casarões, professor of international relations at the Getulio Foundation Vargas (FGV). In this sense, he believes that Twitter helps to bring the country closer to the expectations of its citizens. In the opinion of the author of the Twiplomacy study, Matthias Lüfkens, with the 280-character texts - which until recently were 140 - Twitter also transforms diplomatic language. "Before the governors would say President of Brazil Michel Temer. Now, just say @MichelTemer, " says Lüfkens. The messages become more succinct, direct and accessible.

    Another aspect of 280-character diplomacy is that there is less time for consideration before action. This is particularly serious when it comes to tweets of world leaders, where few words, typed incessantly, can have roaring consequences. "Think of all the emails you regret sending because you responded too quickly when you should have taken a deep breath before writing," recalls Parmelee. Trump lives on this dynamic. Diurnally, it launches in his profile a series of explosive opinions, even having 137 world leaders like followers. The Kremlin said in December that the Russian government sees trump tweets, following instructions from the president himself, as official statements. So there is the risk that by downloading posts about the size of your "button" to fire nuclear missiles,