- Trump spoke with a group of historians on Zoom in July 2021 about his presidency.
- He said press releases were "far more elegant" than tweets and issuing them "only works for me."
- He also said he wasn't "stopped by the number of characters" with his statements, unlike on Twitter.
Despite his lingering resentment over being permanently barred from Twitter following the attack on the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, former President Donald Trump says he's OK with doing things the old-fashioned way: issuing press releases.
"No. 1, it's far more elegant," Trump told a group of historians on a Zoom call in July 2021. "And No. 2, I have — you know, I don't have, I'm not — I'm not stopped by the number of characters, which is actually a good thing."
Trump made the comment during a roughly hourlong interview, the full video of which The Atlantic published on Monday. Twitter barred Trump on January 8, 2021, citing the "risk of further incitement of violence" by his rhetoric.
—Twitter Safety (@TwitterSafety) January 8, 2021
Asked by the Princeton historian Julian E. Zelizer about his use of Twitter, a defining feature of his presidency, Trump said the company had "I think illegally" booted him from its platform. He then touted his use of press releases to communicate with the public.
"I went to a system of press releases, and we're getting tremendous traction on those press releases, tremendous," Trump said, before seeming to suggest that he'd pioneered the medium.
"You know, it's a very unusual thing. It only works for me. It wouldn't work for somebody, would do a press release — everyone's going to say what's this all about," he said.
Most public-facing institutions, including government agencies and offices, campaigns, businesses, nonprofits, and the White House, use press releases to communicate with journalists and the public.
Trump tried to start a blog in May 2021, but he shut it down less than a month later after it gained little traction.
He later launched a social-media site, Truth Social, which Insider's Rosie Bradbury this month described as a "ghost town." Reuters reported this week that two of its top executives had recently resigned.
While praising his press-release system — particularly the lack of a character limit like Twitter's — Trump acknowledged that it's still important to keep the message brief.
"You don't want to go too long either," he said. "I mean, I realize that. You don't need a 10-page statement. But it is a far more elegant way, and it's getting the word out incredibly well."
Trump's press releases are indeed longer than his tweets used to be. On Sunday, he issued an endorsement of Sarah Palin, the former Alaska governor, to succeed the late Rep. Don Young.
The statement, which included a broadside against John McCain's 2008 presidential campaign, clocked in at roughly 730 characters.
—Liz Harrington (@realLizUSA) April 4, 2022
Trump said that his releases are "very spontaneous" but that "a lot of thought goes into them."
The former president also acknowledged frequently getting into trouble for his use of Twitter, including when he retweeted controversial far-right activists and conspiracy theorists and, once, a group of supporters chanting "white power."
"I will say that the things that got me in the most trouble are the retweets, because I retweet, and I do it fairly quickly," he said. "And sometimes you're retweeting somebody that was not the best person to retweet."