US President Donald Trump has singularly raised the profile of Twitter as a social media platform for using it to announce policy decisions, fire people and lash out at critics and opposition members. With 2018 witnessing the US mid-term elections which was touted as a referendum on Trump’s presidency, he was on an overdrive on Twitter. As this year comes to a close, here’s a look at some presidential tweets that the 45th President of the United States saw fit to post.

January 2018:

The first of the books on President Trump was launched by author Michael Wolfe who claimed to provide exclusive details of how Donald Trump’s aides saw him and considered him unfit for the post. Trump obviously unloaded on the author on Twitter, basically calling him mad.

The month of January also saw international furore after reports emerged that Donald Trump while conducting a meeting on immigration called ‘developing countries’ such as Haiti as ‘shithole countries’. Multiple people have confirmed publicly that Trump used this specific phrase but the US President has denied it.

February 2018

Donald Trump in February went on to target another facet of the U.S.’s immigration system – chain migration. Chain migration was introduced to help skilled immigrants in the U.S. to unite with their family by allowing parents and spouses into the country. Trump attacked it without realising that his wife Melania Trump had used this to help her parents come to the U.S. and become Americans.

Trump has gone on the tirade against news organisations that are critical of him. He has categorised CNN, the New York Times and the Washington Post as ‘Fake News media’.

Trump also targeted one of America’s biggest celebrities Oprah Winfrey as she fielded questions of possibly running for the president in 2020 in a televised interview. Oprah also came out in support of a Democratic candidate for the state of Georgia’s governor’s race.

The stand-up comedy TV show Saturday Night Live saw Hollywood Star Alec Baldwin do an uncanny impression of the US President which obviously was not taken sportingly by Trump.

March 2018:

The US President without concern for the dignity of his office threatened the former vice-president of U.S. Joe Biden on Twitter after a televised speech by the later caught his attention.

Trump turned his ire of being the brunt of constant criticism and negative stories in the Washington Post on to the publication’s owner Jeff Bezos and his e-commerce platform. Trump targeted Amazon for using the public postal system.

April 2018:

Trump used Twitter in April to the point of excessiveness. He ranted against the US Department of Justice, the FBI, Amazon, various news organisations – CNN, CBS, ABC News, The New York Times, and dubbed all ‘mainstream media’ as ‘fake news media’.

Trump fired FBI Director James Comey and has ever since frequently ranted against the man who frequently speaks up against him.

Owing to his strained relationship with journalists, Donald Trump gave the annual White House Correspondents’ Dinner a miss. But a day later he targeted the stand-up comedian Michelle Wolf for her previous evening’s performance.

May 2018:

Donald Trump seems to put whatever he thinks onto his Twitter page. Including his views on foreign policy. The first hint that he might scrap the Iran nuclear deal was there for everyone to see on Twitter.

June 2018:

In June, Trump took aim at not less 17 individuals and/or entities through his Twitter account. In the crosshairs were a range of people including Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, bilateral trade deals, the Russian investigation, senior Democratic party leaders Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer, the NFL, his own party’s senator Jeff Flake, and ofcourse Hillary Clinton.

Iconic motorcycle brand Harley Davidson also came under fire from Donald Trump after they announced their decision to move some of their plants to Europe and Thailand after the US government imposed tariffs on steel and aluminium imported into the country.

And Trump wanted TV host Jimmy Fallon to be a man after Fallon shed some tears on live television.

July 2018:

Donald Trump took aim at another grouping that has been a long-standing U.S. ally – the European Union and many countries that are part of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO).

The legal mess surrounding Trump got murkier after the president’s longtime former lawyer Michael Cohen released recordings of his conversation with then candidate Trump about hush-money payments to Karen McDougall and adult film star Stormy Daniels.

It seems that Donald Trump has to compulsively respond to every criticism made against him. He just can’t seem to resist it. LeBron James in an interview with CNN anchor Don Lemon criticised the US President for politicising sports and creating divides on the national anthem issues. Ofcourse, Trump responded.

August 2018:

In August, Trump’s aide Omarosa Manigault who became a White House staffer but was later fired revealed that she was releasing a book on her former boss. She then released multiple audio tapes of conversations she had with Donald Trump around her firing and more. Trump’s fury was unleashed against her in a Twitter tirade in which he even called her ‘a dog.’

September 2018

Another bombshell book on the Trump White House, this time by noted journalist and author Bob Woodward who was part of the Nixon Watergate investigation was released. The details in the book greatly undermined the credibility of Donald Trump’s office.

September also saw Trump nominate Brett Kavanaugh to the U.S. Supreme Court. However, his nomination faced protests and allegations of sexual misconduct.

October 2018:

Donald Trump also took aim at Twitter itself despite using it so frequently, accusing the social media platform of manipulating his account.

A judge's ruling to dismiss a defamation case filed by Stormy Daniels against Donald Trump led to the unbelievable spectacle of the President of the United States trading Twitter barbs with the porn star -- and her lawyer calling Trump a "disgusting misogynist."

Daniels replied with a pointed barb at Trump’s endowment or rather the lack of it.

Daniels’ lawyer Michael Avenatti also weighed in.

November 2018:

Donald Trump gobsmacked the world after he tweeted a  Games of Throne-style poster featuring his own photograph to announce sanctions against Iran. On the poster was written “Sanctions are Coming”. The font style of the text on the picture resembled the signature line of Games of Thrones’ first season “winter is coming”.

The Iranians not to be left behind, tweeted back.

As the midterm elections neared, Trump having being told that the Republican Party would do badly in the polls was looking at anything to blame his future loss. After Twitter, he targeted Google for ‘bias’ against him.

December 2018:

Trump’s tirade is unending and the list of people who he targets gets longer by the day. An interview by Trump’s former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson in which he soundly criticised the President, Donald Trump used his extensive vocabulary to call Tillerson “dumb as a rock.”

These tweets are just a few of the hundreds of tweets that Donald Trump has sent after entering the White House. Some people like Special Counsel Robert Mueller find almost weekly mention on the Twitter timeline while others like the Democratic Party leaders are hit out at when needed.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Dec 26, 2018 04:45 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).