Former staffer reveals how Trump fell in love with Twitter
- Justin McConney, a former Trump Organization staffer, claimed the real-estate mogul had him print out his tweets and read them out loud, according to a NY Mag report.
- Donald Trump reportedly took a liking to his Twitter mentions and would have an aide print them out, using a Sharpie to mark up the ones he wanted to reply to.
- Trump, who reportedly had a flip phone at the time, personally started tweeting after he received an Android phone in 2012.
A former Trump Organization staffer described Donald Trump's inexperience with the internet and claimed that, years ago, the real-estate mogul had him print out his Twitter mentions and read them aloud, according to a New York Magazine report published Friday.
Justin McConney, the Trump Organization's director of new media from 2011 to 2017, told New York Magazine that Trump would order people to reply to people who tweeted him. Trump, who reportedly had a flip phone at the time, personally started tweeting after he received an Android phone in 2012.
"He would say, 'I wanna see more of these! Get me more, get me more!,'" McConney said to the magazine.
Trump reportedly would have McConney print them out, marking which ones he wanted the aide to reply back to with a black Sharpie marker.
"He'd circle ones he wanted to reply to, and I'd go back and do the replies," McConney said.
The former aide said Trump eventually caught the social media bug and learned how to use it to bolster his celebrity.
"To him, unless it's on TV or in the newspaper, because he's old school, it's not going to mean anything," McConney reportedly said.
After shooting a series of low-budget video blogs, Trump "saw the potential with social media ... with free, earned media," McConney said.