President Franklin Delano Roosevelt had his fireside chats on the radio. President Ronald Reagan appeared often before a national TV audience. In 2019, President Trump makes himself heard on his @realDonaldTrump Twitter account.
We at Cheddar decided to take a look at a few of the president's most popular pronouncements on the platform this year.
'Get home ASAP A$AP!'
In the midst of a global uproar over the detention of rapper A$AP Rocky in Sweden, President Trump inserted himself into the discussion and called for his release. Swedish authorities detained Rocky over an assault charge. Once the Harlem rapper was allowed to return to the states, President Trump rolled out the red carpet with a pun, tweeting "A$AP Rocky released from prison and on his way home to the United States from Sweden. It was a Rocky Week, get home ASAP A$AP!"
As it stands, this tweet is President Trump's most liked and most retweeted in 2019.
Trump the heavyweight
Did you ever think you would be talking about a shirtless photo of the President of the United States? President Trump tweeted — with no caption — a photo of his face superimposed on a picture of Sylvester Stallone as fictional boxer Rocky Balboa. This one came at the end of November, after the first round of damaging House Intelligence impeachment hearings. Without using words, it seemed to declare 'I am a heavyweight.' Additionally, the tweet followed news reports that President Trump had a health scare after a surprise trip to a DC hospital.
The boxer tweet is President Trump's fourth most retweeted and third most liked in 2019.
Every dog has its day
One military dog made it onto the president's Twitter feed after a high-stakes raid in Syria. President Trump tweeted "We have declassified a picture of the wonderful dog (name not declassified) that did such a GREAT JOB in capturing and killing the Leader of ISIS, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi!" The picture came after a revealing presidential address that described how the U.S. military took down the ISIS leader in Syria. The pictured K9 helped track down and chase Al-Baghdadi but was injured on the mission. After making a full recovery, the dog's name was ultimately declassified and revealed to be Conan.
President Trump, First Lady Melania Trump, and Vice President Mike Pence all honored Conan at a White House Rose Garden event in November.
The tweet showing Conan earned President Trump his fifth-most retweets and his fourth-most likes.
David Nelson, Chief Strategist at Belpointe, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell, where he says that Wednesday's market movement shows a rotation back into the industries that were hit hard in January, but says his eyes are firmly fixed on the January CPI data set to be released Thursday.
Russia is preparing alongside Belarus for reportedly one of the largest joint military exercises ever held. Some analysts are concerned this could be a disguise for a real attack, while the Kremlin contends that the exercise is meant to confront potential "unprecedented security threats." Christian Whiton, a former State Department senior advisor, joined Cheddar News to break down the still tense situation. "While it could of course be a prelude to invasion, it seems like the Biden administration is signaling that if you look at Europeans, the Germans and Macron … who just met with Putin, they seem to be thinking that maybe this is a show of force by Russia intended at political intimidation, not actual invasion," said Whiton.
Truckers in Canada have blockaded the Ambassador Bridge, the busiest border crossing between Canada and the U.S. protesting a COVID-19 vaccine mandate. Cheddar News spoke with Samir Kapadia, head of trade practice at the Vogal Group, about how this impacts trade between the two countries.
New York City is not only dealing with the ongoing pandemic, it’s also facing a surge in crime. President Biden recently traveled to New York to meet with the city’s new mayor, Eric Adams, to discuss the rise in crime and gun violence.
The president praised Mayor Adams' crimefighting agenda and unveiled a new federal initiative to curb the flow of illegal weapons from the south. Josefa Velásquez, Senior Reporter for THE CITY, joined Cheddar's Fast Forward to talk about how the mayor is battling this increase in crime in his first weeks in office.
The Democratic governors of New Jersey, Connecticut, Delaware, and Oregon say they will lift mask requirements for schools in the coming weeks, reflecting a nationwide shift away from restrictions. Cheddar News speaks with internist Dr. Vivek Cherian whether it's safe to relax the regulation.
Amazon warehouse workers in Alabama are set to begin voting to unionize for a second time after workers at the facility in the town of Bessemer overwhelmingly voted against forming a union during an election early last year; but in November, the National Labor Relations Board overturned the vote, upholding a union challenge of the results which argued that Amazon undermined the conditions for a fair election. Another round of ballots will now be mailed out to works at the warehouse for a so-called re-run election. Director of Labor and Employment Studies at San Francisco State University John Logan and National Field Director for Our Revolution Mike Oles joined Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss.
David Daley, author of the book 'Unrigged: How Americans Are Battling Back to Save Democracy,' joins Cheddar News to discuss redistricting battles taking place across the U.S.