The United States President-elect, Donald Trump, (which still sounds like a joke) made Twitter his preferred means of communication in his election campaign. Worryingly, he shows every sign of doing the same thing in his presidency which, constitutionally at least, has not started yet. He is still tweeting remarks that sound like they have just entered his head, and the fact that his passing thoughts can now carry dire consequences for US foreign relations and world peace, seems not to enter his mind either.
This week, when a Chinese submarine rescue ship took possession of an undersea drone operated by a US Naval oceanographic survey vessel in the South China Sea, Trump tweeted, "China steals United States Navy research drone in international waters - rips it out of water and takes it to China in unprecedented act." Then, a little later, he had another thought, tweeting, "We should tell China that we don't want the drone they stole back - let them keep it."
It is not clear what he is thinking. Possibly an adviser got to him, too late to stop the first tweet, and told him China's seizure of the drone was probably retaliation for his phone conversation with the President of Taiwan. That is an explanation for China's behaviour offered by Michael Fuchs, until this year deputy assistant secretary for East Asian and Pacific Affairs in President Obama's State Department. "It's entirely possible that the Chinese are beginning to look for ways to send signals to the new administration that they are not going to be pushed around when it comes to the US role in Asia, whether it's Taiwan or the South China Sea," he said.
If the same explanation was given to Trump by whomever is trying to advise him on foreign policy, it could explain his subsequent message, "let them keep it". That message denies China the satisfaction of a retaliatory blow. If that is the next President's more considered response to provocations, it is at least preferable to upping the ante in situations such as this. But it would be better if he did not cause needless tension in the first place.
And it would be much better if he could keep his fingers off the buttons of his smartphone every time an angry thought crosses his mind. Not all of them might be capable of being easily rescinded when he becomes Commander in Chief of the US armed forces. Even if no harm is done to anything except his credibility, it will not be behaviour becoming the office.
