President Donald Trump on Sunday yet again harkened back to his election victory 20 months ago by posting a video montage of those who said he would never win.

“They just didn’t get it, but they do now!” Trump wrote in the Twitter post.

They just didn't get it, but they do now! pic.twitter.com/9T50NupkDy — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 8, 2018

The sequence begins with Homer Simpson following Trump down the escalator at Trump Tower in an animated goof on Trump’s real candidacy announcement in 2015.

A parade of famous naysayers ― including George Clooney, Barack Obama, Stephen Colbert and Elizabeth Warren ― follow with certain-sounding predictions that Trump could never capture the presidency.

The clip eventually cuts to election night as a forecasted Hillary Clinton landslide turns into a Trump upset.

The video appears to have been produced shortly after his victory, so it is unclear why he decided to share it now.

Perhaps he needed a diversion while deciding on his nominee to replace retiring Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy.</s>Just three days ahead of Donald Trump's official visit to the United Kingdom, a new BBC documentary slams Trump with new allegations that he is a sexual predator.

Just three days before he is set to make a controversial official visit to the United Kingdom, a documentary airing on Britain’s government-run television network, the BBC, is leveling new allegations of sexual misconduct agent Donald Trump, with one friend who said that he attended parties in the 1980s and 1990s with Trump calling the man who would later win the 2016 presidential election “a predator in action,” according to a Twitter post by the BBC’s Panorama investigative news series.

The documentary, titled Is The President a Sex Pest? (per The Spectator), details Trump’s alleged behavior at parties in which a small number of older men — Trump turned 40 in 1986 — attended along with a much larger group of young women, who were mostly aspiring models, some of them still in their teenage years.

One of the models, Barbara Pilling, tells the BBC in the documentary that Trump made a sexual come-on to her at one such party, according to the advance promo for the Panorama broadcast.

“He said, ‘How old are you?’ And I said, ’17,'” Pilling recounts for the BBC cameras. “And he goes, ‘Oh great. So you’re not too old and not too young. That’s great.'”

Another former model, Heather Braden, says in the promo that she saw Trump at a party in Miami, Florida, attended by just four men and 50 younger women. “I felt like a piece of meat in a meat market,” she said. “I mean, what else could you feel like?”

The documentary does not present any hard evidence that Trump had sexual relations with any underage girls, according to a Daily Mail newspaper account of the BBC documentary. Nonetheless, according to Pilling, “There were girls I would say 14, 15 years old. From Europe” at the parties.

Pilling also compared Trump to disgraced Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein, who has been accused of sexual misconduct and rape by dozens of women — and who entered a not guilty plea to sexual assault charge in a New York courtroom on Monday, the BBC reports.

“The biggest Harvey Weinstein is the president of the United States,” Pilling says in the Sex Pest documentary.

During the 2016 presidential election campaign, and in the months after the election, Trump was accused of sexual misconduct or unwanted advances by 19 women, according to a USA Today count, in incidents ranging from the 1980s to the mid 2000s.

But Trump has branded all of the women who accused him as liars. One of those women, Summer Zervos — a former contestant on Trump’s reality competition TV show The Apprentice — is now suing Trump for defamation over his claim that she lied about Trump’s unwanted groping and kissing of her, as Politico reported.

Likely due in part to the numerous allegations of sexual misconduct against him, polls show that Trump’s popularity with women is among his lowest with any voting bloc, as the Inquisitr reported. Even among Republican women, only 31 percent said that they “strongly” approve of Trump in a recent poll.

Overall, only 32 percent of women in the poll said that they approve of Trump, compared to 54 percent of men.

Though the BBC documentary presents no direct evidence of Trump having sexual relations with underage girls, the source who attended the parties with Trump told the BBC that, in fact, Trump did engage in sex with girls as young as 15 at the parties, according to the Mail account.

“We do know that he was having sex with them, no question about it. The next day or days after we would hear about it, he would brag about it to his friends and it would get around that he scored,” the man, who remains anonymous in the Panorama film, tells the BBC interviewers. “Maybe one or two girls at a time, which is what he loved to do.”</s>Just three days ahead of Donald Trump's official visit to the United Kingdom, a new BBC documentary slams Trump with new allegations that he is a sexual predator.

Just three days before he is set to make a controversial official visit to the United Kingdom, a documentary airing on Britain’s government-run television network, the BBC, is leveling new allegations of sexual misconduct agent Donald Trump, with one friend who said that he attended parties in the 1980s and 1990s with Trump calling the man who would later win the 2016 presidential election “a predator in action,” according to a Twitter post by the BBC’s Panorama investigative news series.

The documentary, titled Is The President a Sex Pest? (per The Spectator), details Trump’s alleged behavior at parties in which a small number of older men — Trump turned 40 in 1986 — attended along with a much larger group of young women, who were mostly aspiring models, some of them still in their teenage years.

One of the models, Barbara Pilling, tells the BBC in the documentary that Trump made a sexual come-on to her at one such party, according to the advance promo for the Panorama broadcast.

“He said, ‘How old are you?’ And I said, ’17,'” Pilling recounts for the BBC cameras. “And he goes, ‘Oh great. So you’re not too old and not too young. That’s great.'”

Another former model, Heather Braden, says in the promo that she saw Trump at a party in Miami, Florida, attended by just four men and 50 younger women. “I felt like a piece of meat in a meat market,” she said. “I mean, what else could you feel like?”

The documentary does not present any hard evidence that Trump had sexual relations with any underage girls, according to a Daily Mail newspaper account of the BBC documentary. Nonetheless, according to Pilling, “There were girls I would say 14, 15 years old. From Europe” at the parties.

Pilling also compared Trump to disgraced Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein, who has been accused of sexual misconduct and rape by dozens of women — and who entered a not guilty plea to sexual assault charge in a New York courtroom on Monday, the BBC reports.

“The biggest Harvey Weinstein is the president of the United States,” Pilling says in the Sex Pest documentary.

During the 2016 presidential election campaign, and in the months after the election, Trump was accused of sexual misconduct or unwanted advances by 19 women, according to a USA Today count, in incidents ranging from the 1980s to the mid 2000s.

But Trump has branded all of the women who accused him as liars. One of those women, Summer Zervos — a former contestant on Trump’s reality competition TV show The Apprentice — is now suing Trump for defamation over his claim that she lied about Trump’s unwanted groping and kissing of her, as Politico reported.

Likely due in part to the numerous allegations of sexual misconduct against him, polls show that Trump’s popularity with women is among his lowest with any voting bloc, as the Inquisitr reported. Even among Republican women, only 31 percent said that they “strongly” approve of Trump in a recent poll.

Overall, only 32 percent of women in the poll said that they approve of Trump, compared to 54 percent of men.

Though the BBC documentary presents no direct evidence of Trump having sexual relations with underage girls, the source who attended the parties with Trump told the BBC that, in fact, Trump did engage in sex with girls as young as 15 at the parties, according to the Mail account.

“We do know that he was having sex with them, no question about it. The next day or days after we would hear about it, he would brag about it to his friends and it would get around that he scored,” the man, who remains anonymous in the Panorama film, tells the BBC interviewers. “Maybe one or two girls at a time, which is what he loved to do.”</s>Editor’s note: This story contains depictions of sexual assault.

Eugene Gu, the doctor famous for successfully suing President Donald Trump for blocking him on Twitter, has been accused of sexual assault by a woman who says she’s his ex.

The woman, a medical student who goes by the username @DoctorMeowskis detailed her months-long relationship with Gu in a Twitter thread on Wednesday. She said that in addition to sexually assaulting her, Gu spent months impersonating a woman and talking to her through a now-deleted fake account.

I'm freaking out now knowing my ex boyfriend was tormenting me with a fake female account. Sending me DMs obsessing over him, asking intimate details about my sex life, and then trying to convince me they slept together.



I'm going to be sick. — Student Dr. Meow (@DoctorMeowskis) July 10, 2018

According to @DoctorMeowskis’ posts, she and Gu developed a relationship after Gu found her through #GirlMedTwitter, a hashtag @DoctorMeowski created to empower women in the medical field. Gu began texting her frequently and said they would be Twitter’s “power couple.” @DoctorMeowskis said that because of her recent breakup with an emotionally distant ex-boyfriend, she felt comforted by Gu’s affection and attention.

She described his obsession with Twitter and the beginning of his controlling behavior.

DoctorMeowskis/Twitter

At the same time, @DoctorMeowskis began receiving messages from a woman named Mary Laury who claimed to be a surgeon. Things with Laury soon became “really weird.” Laury was obsessed with Gu and had “printed [Gu’s] photo and put it on her wall to admire.” Laury also asked for intimate details about @DoctorMeowski and Gu’s relationship. Laury made @DoctorMeowskis feel “uneasy.” Laury also claimed to know Gu in real life.

All this time she was prying if I was dating this surgeon, I told her no because I don't want my dating life all over Twitter until I'm ready to post about it. She then said he was going to be her next conquest. Though I always had an eerie sense she knew we were dating — Student Dr. Meow (@DoctorMeowskis) July 10, 2018

@DoctorMeowskis said she continued communicating with Gu, who frequently complained about his job at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center. She said she advised him to stop posting about his job. (Gu was released from the center earlier this year due to issues concerning his “work performance and professionalism,” though he claimed he was fired for speaking out against white supremacy.)

After a couple of months of talking, Gu invited the @DoctorMeowskis to visit him and said she could shadow him at work, according to her posts.

DoctorMeowskis/Twitter

@DoctorMeowskis said she spent the next few days in his apartment and finally had the chance to go out on a date with him on Valentine’s Day.

The two returned to his apartment, where she said he forced himself on her.

DoctorMeowskis/Twitter

@DoctorMeowski said the next morning Gu made no mention of the previous night and instead gushed about how excited he was for her to meet his mom. She said she returned home and began receiving “intense” messages from Laury about her sex life with Gu.

Gu made comments to her about being her future husband and later made plans to visit her but backed out, claiming he was called into court. After she doubted his excuse, he blocked her.

Laury then reached out to @DoctorMeowskis that Gu was upset and that she was going to fly to see him.

The following day, Laury sent @DoctorMeowskis “disgustingly graphic details” of Laury and Gu’s meetup, which Gu denied. @DoctorMeowskis told him that they were better off friends. He responded by bragging about his new girlfriend, who was “younger” and “had lots of Twitter followers.”

Gu’s Instagram account shows an apparent girlfriend who appears in multiple photos with him from April 3 onward.

He convinced me I felt that way because I was jealous, was I? He was a successful surgeon who I ended things with and if this supposed famous girl wanted him, had I messed up? — Student Dr. Meow (@DoctorMeowskis) July 10, 2018

@DoctorMeowskis posted screenshots of her conversations with Laury and said she never blocked her because her account “legitimately scared” her. @DoctorMeowskis did not respond to the Daily Dot’s request for comment.

These are some of the screenshots. Remember I didn't want "her" to think I was dating the surgeon so I tried to play it cool. I did tell "her" that I heard he was seeing someone, trying to dissuade "her" pic.twitter.com/N178Y3NccH — Student Dr. Meow (@DoctorMeowskis) July 10, 2018

Though @DoctorMeowskis never directly named Gu in her thread, an earlier tweet implied that he was the ex-boyfriend in question. Gu, who is known as a prominent liberal social media activist, maintained his innocence in a tweet alluding to the woman’s accusations and claimed that he was being targeted for “speaking out.”

Since speaking out, I've been falsely accused of selling baby parts, murder, wife beating, false imprisonment, and more. After taking the knee to fight racism, I was fired. My private life has been distorted and miscontrued—with many falsehoods taken as fact. But I am innocent. — Eugene Gu, MD (@eugenegu) July 11, 2018

He also sent messages about @DoctorMeowskis’ post to Kelly Ellis, a software engineer, who voiced her support for the woman. She said that he sent her and other women “conflicting stories” about the allegations. Gu did not respond to the Daily Dot’s request for comment at the time of this posting.

He's DMed me about it. pic.twitter.com/J8VvgiE9ZP — Kelly Ellis (@justkelly_ok) July 11, 2018

Here's another screenshot I took just now with the current time displayed on my phone. And the notification about my flight later today. I'm not making this up. pic.twitter.com/L4hlQB4qgD — Kelly Ellis (@justkelly_ok) July 11, 2018

Several users also accused Gu of using the Mary Laury account to attack those who disagreed with him. In one incident, Laury accused a user who goes by Dr. Glaucomflecken, an ophthalmologist and writer for GomerBlog, of racism.

For those not following: @DGlaucomflecken was accused of racism because his avatar is an ophthalmoscope dressed in a top hat. His accuser was @marylaurymd which turned out to be a dummy account that @eugenegu used to harass @DoctorMeowskis (whom he assaulted in real life). https://t.co/RE0hT19uZR — Jason Woods (@jwoodsmd) July 10, 2018

I’ve done extensive searching. That person is a creation of Eugene Gu. He’s had varying interactions with an account that has changed names from Margaret lau to Mary lau to Mary laury over the year. None of those are physicians or even residents, and this goes back to Jan 2017. pic.twitter.com/82yvhNOe9p — Ben (@be_nMD) July 10, 2018

1. @eugenegu did you fabricate the Mary Laury, MD account and use it to prop up your personal account? — Sacral Decubitus (@SDecubitus) July 10, 2018

The Chronicle, a student newspaper at Duke University, published an article Wednesday morning revealing that Gu’s ex-wife was granted a temporary domestic violence restraining order against him in 2015. Gu denied the claims of domestic abuse and told the news outlet that his criminal records had been expunged. This news came weeks after Donald Trump Jr. sent out a tweet calling the doctor a “wife beater.”

Update 7:00am CT, July 12: In a long Twitter thread Thursday morning, Gu responded to the allegations and told his “full side of the story.”

While incredibly hard for me, I’m going to tell you my full side of the story. I shared all the text messages, voicemails, and other evidence with a Washington Post reporter who, if it comes to it, can verify all the details I am about to describe below. There’s proof. (THREAD) — Eugene Gu, MD (@eugenegu) July 12, 2018

His gives a different version of the events that transpired when @DoctorMeowskis came to visit him, including saying she made unwanted sexual advances toward him and that he slept at the hospital several of the nights she was in town to avoid being in bed with her.

She took off my pants and tried to go on top of me to have sex but she is a lot bigger and heavier than me and I couldn’t easily breathe. I wasn’t putting up any resistance but I felt disgusted. We started to go sideways and I tried to picture my then-fiancé but I still... — Eugene Gu, MD (@eugenegu) July 12, 2018

...couldn’t maintain an erection for long and we stopped. I ended up sleeping and so did she. When we woke up, we got something to eat at a restaurant before I had to spend that night in the hospital again. I felt really disgusted but tried to hide it and move on. — Eugene Gu, MD (@eugenegu) July 12, 2018

That’s the only time we met in person but soon our Twitter chats devolved into periodic unwanted sexual advances from her. She would also request over and over for us to meet again or for me to visit her. I did my best to finds ways around this and avoid another sexual encounter. — Eugene Gu, MD (@eugenegu) July 12, 2018

Later in the thread, he concedes to using the Mary Laury account to DM the woman. He says, “In hindsight this was immature of me and I regret the way I used it,” but explains he used it to corroborate details of a trip he’d made up.

This is where Mary Laury comes in. In the beginning, it was an anonymous account people close to me created to address the trolling issues I was encountering from Trump supporters on Twitter. After a while I also shared access of this account to help combat the trolls. — Eugene Gu, MD (@eugenegu) July 12, 2018

I used the Mary Laury account not to harass or stalk her but to corroborate the fact that I would be in DC for the weekend. In hindsight this was immature of me and I regret the way I used it, but I was desperate to find a way for her to believe me that I was unable to visit her. — Eugene Gu, MD (@eugenegu) July 12, 2018

I intentionally used the burner account obnoxiously to turn her off from me and drive a wedge between us romantically. I wanted to somehow steer us into being just friends without her retaliating against me for rejecting her sexual advances. It was immature, but it worked. — Eugene Gu, MD (@eugenegu) July 12, 2018

Gu includes screenshots of a text message thread with a contact labeled Laurazapam (who he says is @DoctorMeowskis) as evidence “she would still proposition me for sex in very uncomfortable ways.”

I tried my best to maintain our relationship as strictly platonic at this point but she would still proposition me for sex in very uncomfortable ways that were just awkward and unwanted. pic.twitter.com/Q6ViI7awLH — Eugene Gu, MD (@eugenegu) July 12, 2018

He says their last correspondence was a text of “???!?!?” after Donald Trump Jr. accused Gu of domestic violence.

Then a few days after Donald Trump Jr. attacked me as a “wife beater,” she texted me out of the blue with the picture below showing my false domestic violence allegations and other defamatory information. All she said in the text was “???!?!?.” I was offended and didn’t respond. pic.twitter.com/SlfdFMlGYD — Eugene Gu, MD (@eugenegu) July 12, 2018

After that, when I started tweeting about the July Effect for interns entering teaching hospitals all at once on July 1, it somehow angered the #MedTwitter community like a hive of bees. I then called out @DGlaucomflecken for a racist comment which angered her and the community. — Eugene Gu, MD (@eugenegu) July 12, 2018

That’s when all hell broke loose and she falsely accused me of sexual assault and other horrendous allegations. It pains me deeply to expose such private and embarassing details like this but I had to clear my name. Reporters were even asking me to comment on my sexual assault. — Eugene Gu, MD (@eugenegu) July 12, 2018

The thread concludes with his assessment of the #MeToo movement: “It’s about all human beings who are victimized by sexual assault or sexual harassment. Men can be victimized by women too.”

In summary, the #MeToo movement is not about women vs. men or men vs. women. It’s about all human beings who are victimized by sexual assault or sexual harassment. Men can be victimized by women too. And false accusations without due process is a weapon of terror. — Eugene Gu, MD (@eugenegu) July 12, 2018

The thread begins here. Gu says he’s shared all the relevant text messages and voicemails with a Washington Post reporter.

This story has been updated for clarity.</s>There’s nothing like a little Twitter war among allies to get warmed up for the NATO summit.

As he prepared to leave Washington for this week’s leaders’ summit in Brussels, U.S. President Donald Trump unleashed a brief barrage, reiterating his attacks on Europe over defense spending and trade.

The lashing out by the tweeter-in-chief echoed Trump’s attacks on Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and French President Emmanuel Macron ahead of last month’s G7 summit in Quebec.

This time, Trump’s volley was met with return fire from European Council President Donald Tusk, who used his brief prepared remarks at a signing ceremony of a new NATO-EU cooperation statement to speak the truth to American hard power, and to urge Trump to remember who his friends are.

“Speaking on the eve of the NATO summit here in Brussels, I would like to address President Trump directly, who for a long time now has been criticizing Europe almost daily for, in his view, insufficient contributions to the common defence capabilities, and for living off the U.S.,” Tusk said.

“Dear President Trump: America does not have, and will not have a better ally than Europe,” Tusk continued. “Today Europeans spend on defence many times more than Russia, and as much as China. And I think you can have no doubt, Mr. President, that this is an investment in common American and European defence and security — which can’t be said with confidence about Russian or Chinese spending.”

Just to be sure Trump heard him, Tusk also posted his comments on Twitter.

Tusk, a former Polish prime minister, has spoken out previously against the other Donald, warning Trump, for instance, that American unpredictability is harming the EU-U.S. relationship, and criticizing him for withdrawing from the Iran nuclear accord and slapping tariffs on EU steel and aluminum.

Tusk also warned Europe that it could no longer rely on Washington. “Looking at the latest decisions of Trump, someone could even think: With friends like that, who needs enemies?” Tusk has asked.

At the signing ceremony on Tuesday, with Trump due to arrive in Brussels within hours, Tusk did not mince his words, and he also exhorted European nations to spend more on their militaries.

“First of all, dear America, appreciate your allies, after all you don’t have that many,” he said. “And, dear Europe, spend more on your defence, because everyone respects an ally that is well-prepared and equipped.”

“Money is important, but genuine solidarity is even more important,” Tusk said. “Speaking about solidarity, I want to dispel the American president’s argument, which says that the U.S. alone protects Europe against our enemies, and that the U.S. is almost alone in this struggle. Europe was first to respond on a large scale when the U.S. was attacked, and called for solidarity after 9/11.”

Trump will arrive in Brussels having sunk transatlantic relations to new lows, with some European leaders warning that the American president is permanently redrawing the geopolitical balance in ways that will not easily be undone.

Asked about Trump’s criticisms, and specifically about his linking of the trade fight to military spending, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said that all allies are working to increase their expenditures.

“I believe that when it comes to trade, I will leave that to the European Union,” Stoltenberg said at a pre-summit news conference at NATO headquarters, just moments after signing the NATO-EU cooperation statement. “When it comes to defense, my message is that we are actually now stepping up. European allies are stepping up. Canada is stepping up.”

He added: “We estimate that European allies and Canada will add an extra $266 billion to defense between now and 2024.”

Stoltenberg said: “I am absolutely certain that this summit will show we are able to deliver on security and defense despite the differences we see on trade and other issues.”

Read this next: The case against techno-pessimism</s>Donald Trump was profoundly affected by watching his older brother, Freddy, die from alcoholism at 43. He proselytised against drinking and smoking, warning his kids away from those vices. Even with his casinos, Trump wasn’t a gambler, saying he’d rather own slot machines than play them.

And yet, in a strange twist, Trump has ended up an addict. One of the more chilling things I’ve heard recently came from Jaron Lanier, the Silicon Valley founding father whose new book is Ten Arguments for Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now. Lanier, who met Trump a couple of times back in the real estate developer’s New York heyday, thinks the president’s addiction to tweeting is rewiring his brain in a negative way.

As Trump picks up speed on Twitter, the Oval Office is becoming a Skinner box. Like other “behavior modification empires,” as Lanier calls social media sites, Twitter offers positive reinforcement for negativity. “Twitter addicts take on this kind of nervous, paranoid, cranky quality, sort of itching for a fight,” Lanier said in an interview. “Trump used to be in on his own joke, and he no longer is. He’s just striking out every morning, fishing for somebody to harass or seeing who’s harassing him.

“I do think it creates a terrifying situation because somebody who is addicted is easy to manipulate. It’s easier for the North Koreans to lie to him than if he wasn’t an addict.”

The hostility and insensitivity that so easily flow from his fingers now define his immigration policy. I saw a report on PBS about a mother on the border who was reunited with her 14-month-old child after 85 days. “The child continued to cry when we got home and would hold on to my leg and would not let me go,” the mother wrote. “When I took off his clothes, he was full of dirt and lice. It seemed like they had not bathed him the 85 days he was away from us.”

On the occasion of America’s 242nd birthday, we must ask who we are, if we can see accounts of infants snatched from their parents and returned covered in lice, and not worry about our country’s soul.

Trump has certainly made political discourse more crude and belligerent. But is he making the whole country meaner, coarser and less empathetic? Or was the pump primed for a political figure like him because the internet had already made America meaner, coarser and less empathetic? Did they happen simultaneously?

Launching a comeback, Twitter recast itself in a harsher light. The company, the New York Times’ Farhad Manjoo wrote, “tweaked its central feed to highlight virality, turning Twitter into a bruising barroom brawl featuring the most contentious political and cultural fights of the day”.

Manjoo told me: “Now when you log in, they show you the most interesting tweets you missed while you were away. They highlight the tweets of people arguing, the big news brawls of the day, as a way to engage the rest of the audience. That makes it a meaner place.” This, even as Twitter – under pressure like the rest of Silicon Valley for letting the monsters get out of control – is developing “health metrics” to promote civility and communicate “more holistically”. On its company blog, Twitter said it was inspired by Cortico, a non-profit research organisation that is trying to measure “conversational health” with four indicators: shared attention, shared reality, variety of opinion and receptivity. Not exactly the attributes we see in Trump.

It will be hard for Twitter to become more civil and holistic given that in January it instituted a world leaders policy exempting a certain head of state from any tempering efforts. “Blocking a world leader from Twitter or removing their controversial Tweets would hide important information people should be able to see and debate,” the company said. That leaves Trump free to grab his phone at all hours to shove and to smear and to spew falsehoods.

As Michiko Kakutani writes in her new book, The Death of Truth: “Trump, of course, is a troll – both by temperament and by habit. His tweets and offhand taunts are the very essence of trolling – the lies, the scorn, the invective, the trash talk, and the rabid non-sequiturs of an angry, aggrieved, isolated, and deeply self-absorbed adolescent who lives in a self-constructed bubble and gets the attention he craves from bashing his enemies and trailing clouds of outrage and dismay in his path.” Be best! We have a president who is an addict running a country overflowing with opioid and social media addicts. (In an interview with the Times a few days ago, tech reporter Nellie Bowles said she dealt with her smartphone addiction by graying out her screen, noting, “these phones are designed to look and work like slot machines, hit us with bright colors and little pings to activate and please,” and “we all have to figure out little hooks to pull back into the physical world”.)

Art Markman, a psychology professor at the University of Texas at Austin who has lamented the extraordinarily aggressive online comments at media outlets, hopes people will resume a sense of decorum when they realise “there’s very little long-term profit from a viral tweet”.

“We don’t have to cater to those meanspirited instincts,” he said. “We can be better than that.” But I don’t think Trump can. He figured out how to dominate Twitter, not with the cool-kid arch style of making fun of someone, but by being school-yard-bully mean. His tweets propel the story on cable news and shape the narrative for reporters – who are addicted to the First Addict. For Trump, who is also an attention addict, that is about as holistic as it’s going to get.</s>Donald Trump says on his Twitter account that he is 'confident' the North Korean dictator will 'honor the contract we signed;' Twitter users laugh at him.

Following reports that North Korea was not, in fact, taking steps to get rid of nuclear weapons and nuclear capabilities nearly a month after the Singapore meeting between the country’s dictator Kim Jong-un and Donald Trump, Trump took to his Twitter account on Monday morning to reassure Americans that Kim would go ahead with denuclearization — calling the one-page statement signed by both men a “contract.”

Signed on June 12, the document (per Vox.com) said only that North Korea “commits to work toward complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.” But the “Korean Peninsula” also includes the Republic of Korea, generally known as South Korea, which relies on nuclear protection from the United States.

“Disarmament experts say North Korea has used denuclearization to refer to what it views as the American military’s strategic capability to strike North Korea with nuclear weapons from afar, and to the American protection of South Korea and Japan under a so-called nuclear umbrella from bases in the Pacific,” The New York Times reported.

While the United States has not made any commitments to withdraw its nuclear “umbrella” over South Korea, satellite evidence has shown that since the summit, as the Inquisitr reported, North Korea appears to have continued to improve — not dismantle — its nuclear facilities.

United States intelligence agencies quickly confirmed that report, NBC News reported, saying that, “North Korea has increased its production of fuel for nuclear weapons at multiple secret sites in recent months — and that Kim Jong Un may try to hide those facilities as he seeks more concessions in nuclear talks with the Trump administration.”

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was in Pyongyang for talks over the weekend, but as Bloomberg News reported, left with North Korea slamming the talks as “regrettable,” while stage-managing every minute of Pompeo’s visit, even rearranging artwork on the walls of Pompeo’s assigned hotel suite.

But Trump on Monday said he remained confident in Kim.

“I have confidence that Kim Jong Un will honor the contract we signed &, even more importantly, our handshake. We agreed to the denuclearization of North Korea. China, on the other hand, may be exerting negative pressure on a deal because of our posture on Chinese Trade-Hope Not!” his Twitter message said.

Twitter users immediately ridiculed Trump’s false claim that the brief statement signed on June 12 was, in fact, a “contract.”

Other Twitter commenters noted that Trump himself has faced more than his share of claims that he has failed to honor contracts in his own business career. During the 2016 presidential election campaign, as Fortune Magazine reported, Trump was facing more than 60 lawsuits from contractors, including his own lawyers, who said that Trump violated his contracts with them by refusing to pay.

In one particularly large contract case, a Florida golf resort owned by Trump was ordered to pay members more than $5 million for breaching a contract between members and the club, Fortune reported in February of 2017.

In fact, just on Monday — the same say Trump was claiming that Kim Jong-un would honor his “contract” on denuclearization — Trump was sued again over an alleged breach of contract, Bloomberg News reported. This time, Trump’s personal chauffeur of 25 years claims that Trump stiffed him out of more than 3,300 hours in overtime pay.</s>US President Donald Trump is by far the most followed world leader on Twitter, with the Pope trailing him by some 4.5 million followers, a study showed Tuesday.

The number of Trump’s followers has “more than doubled since taking office”, the study authors said.

With more than 52 million followers, the @realDonaldTrump account also counts nearly 10 million more followers than third-place holder, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, according to the latest “Twiplomacy” study by communications firm Burson Cohn & Wolfe (BCW).

In terms of interactions with followers -- in the form of likes and retweets -- Trump’s lead is even more impressive, the study showed.

Over the past 12 months, the US president has had nearly 264.5 million interactions with his followers -- more than five times more than runner-up Modi, and 12 times as many as Pope Francis, in third place.

However, in terms of retweets alone, Saudi Arabia’s King Salman easily dwarfs Trump.

Salman only tweeted 11 times between May 2017 and May 2018, but each of those tweets generated an average of 154,294 retweets, compared to just 20,319 retweets per Trump tweet, the study showed.

It also pointed out that the US State Department is the only US governmental department which does not follow the personal account of @realDonaldTrump.

At the same time however, the State Department does follow the Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif and Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani.

Tuesday’s report found that leaders around the world have jumped on the Twitter train, with the governments of only six countries -- Laos, Mauritania, Nicaragua, North Korea, Swaziland and Turkmenistan -- still lacking an official presence on the platform.

In Europe, British Prime Minister Theresa May was the most followed leader on Twitter over the past year, with the @10DowningStreet account counting nearly 5.6 million followers.

The British royal family came next with 3.6 million, followed by French President Emmanuel Macron, who has nearly tripled his numbers since his election last year to over three million Twitter followers.

Queen Rania of Jordan ranks at the top of the twittersphere among Arab leaders with nearly 10.7 million followers, ahead of Dubai ruler Sheikh Mohammed with over nine million followers, and King Salman on nearly seven million.

And Latin American governments are among the most prolific on twitter. Venezuela’s foreign ministry sends out an average of 55 tweets each day over the past 12 months, according to the study.

While most world leaders and governments are growing their Twitter followings, there are exceptions.

According to the study, Russian Premier Dmitry Medvedev, the Russian foreign ministry, and the Ukrainian foreign ministry have seen their number of followers decline significantly “after Twitter decided to cut down on fake followers and bot farms”.

BCW’s own review of 951 Twitter accounts showed that 125 of them, or 13%, were currently dormant, 33 inactive and nine protected.</s>New Delhi, July 11: Prime Minister Narendra Modi is the third most followed leader on Twitter after US President Donald Trump and Pope Francis, according to a report by communications agency BCW.

Minister of External Affairs Sushma Swaraj is the most followed woman leader in the world and occupies seventh spot in overall ranking.

"Indian Prime Minister @NarendraModi takes the third and fourth spots, with 42 million followers on his personal account," the study named Twiplomacy said.

Modi's institutional account @PMOIndia occupies fourth spot with over 26 million followers and outranks official Twitter account of the US President, @POTUS ranks fifth and @WhiteHouse ranks sixth, with over 23 million and 17 million followers respectively as per the study.

Trump is the most followed world leader on Twitter, with 52 million followers on his @realDonaldTrump account and Francis has 47 million followers, the report said.

Swaraj, who is also the most followed foreign minister, has over 11 million followers, the study said.

Social media has become a primary conduit of diplomacy. It has gone from being an afterthought to the very first thought of world leaders and government's across the globe, as audiences flock to their Twitter newsfeeds for the latest news and statements," Chad Latz, Chief Innovation Officer, BCW said.

The study said that Trump is personally active on his own Twitter accounts and his tweets have generated 264 million interactions (likes and retweets) over the past 12 months, more than five times as many as Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, with 52 million interactions, and 12 times as many as Pope Francis, with 22 million interactions.

According to Twiplomacy, the heads of state and government and foreign ministers of 187 countries had a presence on Twitter as of May 18, 2018, representing 97 percent of all 193 UN member states.

"The governments of only six countries, namely Laos, Mauritania, Nicaragua, North Korea, Swaziland and Turkmenistan do not have an official presence on the platform. Even the Chinese government's State Council Information Office maintains a presence on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube," the study said.</s>With over 42 million followers on his personal Twitter account, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is behind US President Donald Trump (52 million) and Pope Francis (47 million) but in terms of influence on the microblogging site, Modi is the second most important world leader, a global study said on Tuesday.

With over 11 million followers, India’s external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj is not only the most followed female world leader but also the most followed foreign minister in the world, according to the 2018 “Twiplomacy” study by BCW -- a global communications agency.

The study analysed the activity of 951 Twitter accounts of heads of state and government and foreign ministers for a year -- from May 2017 to May 2018 -- using aggregate data from Crowdtangle.com, a content discovery and social monitoring platform.

While Modi currently has 43.4 million followers on Twitter, Trump has 53.4 million and Swaraj has 11.8 million followers.

Trump became the most followed world leader in October 2017 when he passed Pope Francis (@Pontifex) who is the second most followed world leader with more than 47 million followers on his nine language accounts.

Trump’s followers on his @realDonaldTrump account has more than doubled since taking office on January 20, 2017.

Tweets from the US President generated 264 million interactions (likes and retweets) over the past 12 months, more than five times as many as Modi, with 52 million interactions, and 12 times as many as Pope Francis’s tweets which generated 22 million interactions, the study showed.

As of May 18, 2018, the heads of state and government and foreign ministers of 187 countries had a presence on Twitter, representing 97% of all 193 UN member states, the findings showed.

The governments of only six countries, namely Laos, Mauritania, Nicaragua, North Korea, Swaziland and Turkmenistan do not have an official presence on the platform, the study said.

Even the Chinese government’s State Council Information Office maintains a presence on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.

Facebook is the second-most popular network among government leaders, and it is where they have the biggest audience, according to the study.

Facebook-owned Instagram has become the third-most popular social network for governments, with 81 per cent of all UN member states having set up an account and many of them are sharing daily Instagram stories.
Eugene Gu, a doctor famous for successfully suing President Donald Trump for blocking him on Twitter, has been accused of sexual assault by a woman who says she’s his ex.