Donald Trump has criticized or mocked conservative candidates, politicians, and pundits nearly five times as often as liberal-leaning folks on his personal Twitter account.
A Washington Examiner analysis of the individuals Trump has mentioned on his Twitter feed — excluding mentions included in retweets or quoted tweets — found that the Republican presidential hopeful strongly prefers to launch attacks against members of his own party on social media.
On June 21, less than a week after launching his presidential bid in New York City, Trump tweeted that GOP strategist Karl Rove “spent $430 million in the [2014 campaign] cycle and didn’t win one race.” In a separate tweet on the same day, the billionaire businessman called the Fox News contributor and former Bush adviser a “jerk.”
Since then, Trump has tweeted a total of 46 negative remarks about Rove and other GOP presidential candidates, politicians, and pundits in comparison to the 10 times he’s gone after Democratic candidates, politicians and pundits during that same time frame.
In addition to attacking Rove on Twitter on eight separate occasions — calling him a “Bush plant,” “total loser,” and “clown with zero credibility,” — Trump has gone after fellow Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush nine times.
Trump has accused the former Florida governor of cronyism and said he is incapable of securing the border, negotiating “great trade deals for American workers,” and solving problems.
After Bush’s super PAC announced that it had raised over $100 million, Trump tweeted, Everyone of those people who contributed are getting something to the detriment of America!”
Other right-leaning victims of Trump’s online taunts include rival GOP candidates Rick Perry, Marco Rubio, and George Pataki; syndicated columnist and Fox News contributor, Charles Krauthammer; former President George W. Bush; 2012 Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney; Fox News Sunday host Chris Wallace; libertarian magician and former “Celebrity Apprentice” finalist Penn Jillette; and most recently, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.
Since July 18, the spitfire candidate has tweeted about McCain six different times. He’s accused the Arizona senator of “doing a lousy job in taking care of our vets,” letting the country down by losing to President Obama in 2008, and calling “thousands of people “crazies” who attended Trump’s recent campaign rally in Phoenix, Ariz.
Outside the social media sphere, Trump gave out Lindsey Graham’s personal cell phone number in public Tuesday.
On the Democratic side, Trump has mocked liberal pundit Juan Williams for repeatedly blasting him on air, but requesting a picture with him when the two ran into each other recently; accused Sen. Ben Cardin, D-Md., of helping to destroy Baltimore; called media maven Arianna Huffington a “liberal clown;” and said he loves watching “sleepy eyes” Chuck Todd “fail” at his job as an MSNBC anchor.
The real estate magnate has gone after Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton only three times on Twitter since June 21. He questioned her negotiation tactics by asking Americans to envision her “negotiating with [the Mexican drug lord] ‘El Chapo’,” mocked her low turnout at a campaign event in New Hampshire, and tweeted a video of himself calling the former secretary of state “pathetic” for ‘blaming’ him for the tragic shooting in Charleston, S.C.
Trump does frequently call her the worst secretary of state in U.S. history in speeches and media appearances, however.
While Trump has kept busy provoking his conservative counterparts, he’s demonstrated a much lighter attitude toward liberal figures.
.@billmaher: Bill, you are really beginning to understand what is going on with “Trump” – actually, you always knew!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 27, 2015
The GOP frontrunner thanked CNN anchor Anderson Cooper for “being so fair with [his] reporting,” retweeted Piers Morgan, and responded to Bill Maher’s description of him as a “frankenstein monster” of the Tea Party’s making with pure sarcasm.
Rep. Carlos Curbelo, R-Fla., recently tweeted that Trump’s candidacy and ongoing bickering with his Republican rivals could be a Democratic scheme to damage the GOP’s chances at retaking the White House in 2016, according to MSNBC.
“I think there’s a small possibility that this gentleman is a phantom candidate,” Curbelo reportedly said during a radio interview, adding that Trump’s friendship with the Clintons and previous donations to the Clinton Foundation and Hillary’s Senate campaigns make “all of this very suspicious.”
During an episode of PoliticsNation last week, MSNBC host Al Sharpton dedicated an entire segment to highlighting this idea in a tongue-in-cheek way. Sharpton told his viewers “it’s plain as day” that Trump is a “secret Democrat.”
“I’m no conspiracy theorist, but the evidence speaks for itself,” Sharpton said.
