Trump Remains Defiant About Unfiltered Tweets

President Trump's social media habits are in the news again, this time not so much for a particular tweet but for his tweeting habit in general. Trump himself weighed in on the subject Tuesday, by tweet, of course. "The FAKE MSM is working so hard trying to get me not to use Social Media," he wrote. "They hate that I can get the honest and unfiltered message out." This comes after a series of controversial tweets on Monday about his travel ban and the London mayor. Related coverage:

• Hurting his cause? Time talks to legal experts who lay out how Trump's tweets about the travel ban are jeopardizing his chances for a Supreme Court win.
• Colbert's take: Stephen Colbert notes that Trump's tweets criticized his own Justice Department: "To quote third-grade boys everywhere, 'Why are you hitting yourself?'" See the clip here.
• Brutal editorial: The conservative editorial page of the Wall Street Journal delivers a scathing assessment after Monday's tweets. With them, Trump "diminished his own standing by causing a minor international incident, demonstrated that the loyalty he demands of the people who work for him isn't reciprocal, set back his policy goals, and wasted time that he could have devoted to health care, tax reform, or 'infrastructure week.' Mark it all down as further evidence that the most effective opponent of the Trump Presidency is Donald J. Trump."
• Also on the right: In the Washington Examiner, Becket Adams gets that the president likes the unfiltered aspect of tweeting, "but the benefits of Trump deleting or suspending his account far, far, far outweigh the cost of him keeping it."
• Hurting his cause, take II: A post at Axios notes that New York Times reporter Michael Schmidt said on Morning Joe that it was Trump's tweets about James Comey that prompted Comey's associates to speak to him for stories. That "led to them talking about how Trump told Comey to end the Flynn investigation," a potential bombshell that Comey will likely be asked about this week in Senate testimony.

• New bot: Software developer Russel Neiss has developed a bot that turns Trump's tweets into official presidential announcements. See it here. Neiss explains how and why to the Atlantic. For the record, he thinks it's fine that Trump tweets but finds it "interesting" that it "does not appear that these things are filtered through any formal vetting process."
• Serious or no? Politico examines an odd juxtaposition at play: Trump wants the public to take his tweets seriously, while White House aides (including Kellyanne Conway) criticize the media for doing just that.
• Succinct: The Daily Beast notes that aides had previously been working on a plan to vet the presidential tweets, and when the DB checked in with its White House source to ask what progress had been made, the response was a hopeless "LMFAO."
• About London: After his criticism of London Mayor Sadiq Khan, the mayor suggested that Trump's invitation for a state visit be rescinded, but former mayor and current Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson sees no need for that, per the Guardian.

(More President Trump stories.)