page_title: Donald Trump on social media
section_title: 2017–19 Qatar diplomatic crisis
hierarchical_section_title: Donald Trump on social media / Twitter / Other controversial tweets / 2017–19 Qatar diplomatic crisis
caption_attribution_description: President Donald Trump meets with the Emir of Qatar during their bilateral meeting, Sunday, May 21, 2017, at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. (Official White House Photo by Shealah Craighead)
context_page_description: Donald Trump's use of social media has attracted worldwide attention. He frequently uses Twitter and other social media platforms to make comments about other politicians, celebrities, private citizens and daily news. From his official declaration of candidacy in June 2015 through the first two-and-a-half years of his presidency, he tweeted over 17,000 times. Since early in his presidency, his tweets have been considered official statements by the president of the United States.
  He often posts controversial or false statements. An investigation by The New York Times published November 2, 2019, found that, during his time in office, Trump "retweeted 217 accounts that have not been verified by Twitter," at least 145 of which "have pushed conspiracy or fringe content, including more than two dozen that have since been suspended by Twitter."
  On July 16, 2019, the House of Representatives voted to censure him for "racist comments" he had tweeted two days previously. Only 4 Republicans supported the measure, while 187 voted against it.
  His advisors have warned him that his tweets may alienate some of his supporters.
context_section_description: The Qatar diplomatic crisis is an escalation of the Qatar–Saudi Arabia diplomatic conflict, it began when several countries abruptly cut off diplomatic relations with Qatar in June 2017. These countries included Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Egypt, which cited Qatar's alleged support for terrorism as the main reason for their actions. The severing of relations included withdrawing ambassadors, and imposing trade and travel bans. Trump claimed credit for engineering the diplomatic crisis in a series of tweets. On June 6, Trump began by tweeting: "During my recent trip to the Middle East I stated that there can no longer be funding of Radical Ideology. Leaders pointed to Qatar – look!" An hour and a half later, he remarked on Twitter that it was "good to see the Saudi Arabia visit with the King and 50 countries already paying off. They said they would take a hard line on funding extremism, and all reference [sic] was pointing to Qatar. Perhaps this will be the beginning of the end to the horror of terrorism!" This was in contrast to attempts by the Pentagon and State department to remain neutral. The Pentagon praised Qatar for hosting the Al Udeid Air Base and for its "enduring commitment to regional security." US ambassador to Qatar, Dana Shell Smith, sent a similar message. Earlier, the US secretary of state had taken a neutral stance and called for dialogue.
caption: United States president Trump with the emir of Qatar Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, May 2017
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