Trump’s State of the Union response: Social media glitches and spot filters
Former President Donald J. Trump promised Americans a “play-by-play” of President Biden’s State of the Union address on Thursday evening.
That, Mr. Trump declared before the event began, would happen on “Truth Social, the real voice of America,” praising the social media platform in which he has a financial interest that would be his bully for the evening.
But soon after that voice sputtered.
Truth Social began experiencing outages near the start of Mr. Biden’s remarks, with more than 3,000 outages reported on the site as of 9:30 p.m. according to Down Detector, a website that tracks user reports of web disruptions. The outages interrupted the barrage of derogatory messages that made up Trump’s response to Biden’s comments, including an unusual video that mockingly deployed Snapchat filters.
Mr. Biden took numerous shots Thursday night at Mr. Trump, the expected Republican nominee, referring to him only as his “predecessor” in an effort to emphasize the stakes of the election and create a contrast for viewers between his views on the election. country and the country depicted by its almost certain opponent.
Mr. Biden, referring to the “American story,” spoke of how his “life has taught me to embrace freedom and democracy.” Then Mr. Biden, referring to Mr. Trump, said: “Now some other people my age see a different story — the American story of resentment, revenge and retaliation. I’m not.” (Mr. Trump, whose comments often paint a dark future for America, recently called the United States a “Third World country.”)
After the event ended, Mr. Trump’s accounts on Truth Social and Instagram showed a video of Snapchat-like filters switching on what appeared to be Mr. Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris during the 2023 State of the Union.
In one clip, Mr. Biden and Ms. Harris were seen with googly eyes and wide, menacing smiles as he discussed the Buy American Act; another gave them cowboy hats and braided hair as Mr. Biden talked about insulin capsules.
Trump had help with his social media Thursday evening and did not post the messages himself, according to a person familiar with the matter.
Throughout the night, Mr. Trump berated Mr. Biden for taking time to greet guests before taking the stage (“This is the longest walk in presidential history”); his behavior (“He’s so angry and crazy!”); his appearance (“His hair is much better in the front than the back!”); and occasional coughing (“Don’t shake his hand, he’s been coughing into it all night.”).
“This is like a shouting match, every line is shouted,” Mr. Trump, a man often prone to making angry speeches and social media posts, wrote at one point, in all caps.
Like Mr. Trump, conservative commentators — after months of trying to portray Mr. Biden as weakened and diminished — complained that Mr. Biden was overly animated.
The Biden campaign had a simple answer to Mr. Trump’s response operation.
“Sad,” said Ammar Moussa, a spokesperson for the Biden campaign, next to a screenshot of Truth Social that failed to load.
Trump released a video later on Thursday evening telling viewers that “Crooked Joe Biden is running from his record and lying like crazy to try to escape responsibility for the horrific destruction he and his party have wrought. .”
His accounts then resumed their more typical activity, posting a video crafted from a clip of Mr Biden eating an ice cream cone. In the video, Mr Biden was positioned as if he were strolling down a flooded street as a rubbish bin decorated with an American flag floated by in flames.
Maggie Haberman reporting contributed.