President Donald Trump has a rich and varied history of tweeting whatever random bullshit comes to his mind. From accusations of bloody facelifts to drowsy exclamations of #covfefe, the leader of the free world has never been one to hold back on the social media platform.
However, soon, it may not be up to him. According to a THR report, political consultant Cheryl Jacobus has just filed a brief at a New York appeals court. Originally, Jacobus had filed a case against Trump over tweets he posted after she appeared on CNN, which asserted that she had ”begged [Trump] for a job. [He] said no and she went hostile.” Trump also tweeted, ”Turned her down twice and she went hostile. Major loser, zero credibility.” Jacobus alleged that those tweets hurt her reputation and subsequently affected her career.
The original case was thrown out because it was decided that “intemperate tweets” shouldn’t count as true defamation. The gist of the ruling was that nobody believes Twitter, with the justice claiming:
Indeed, to some, truth itself has been lost in the cacophony of online and Twitter verbiage to such a degree that it seems to roll of the national consciousness like water off a duck’s back.
Jacobus is seeking to win an appeal, however, on the grounds that what should be on trial isn’t the medium but the content of the message. Her lawyer will attempt to prove that it doesn’t matter if the president uses Twitter, print or scribbles it on a napkin with one of his crayons—libel is libel, and there’s not much reason to assume that Trump’s millions of followers would see a post of his as anything but the truth.
If she should win her case, it’s possible that a huge precedent could be set whereby Trump may finally have to monitor his tweets or suffer the thousand natural lawsuits to which assholes are heir.