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Election Humor

Election humor columnist slides into Donald Trump ghosttweeter’s DMs

In the past few months, Donald Trump’s ghostwriter Tony Schwartz, who penned the supposed autobiography, “The Art of the Deal,” came forward to speak against his former master. But Trump also has been using a ghostwriter for his tweets, and The Daily Orange conducted a short interview with him over Twitter direct message.

The following are direct messages from June 2015 between the Daily Orange’s Twitter and Tommy Gonzalez, Donald Trump’s ghost tweeter. Trump announced he would run for president on June 16, 2015.

The D.O. is now choosing to publish these tweets as it has just been informed that Tony Gonzalez has recently been let go from the Trump campaign, and is now tweeting for former Congressman Anthony Weiner.

Readers should keep in mind the brevity of the messages as Twitter only allowed 140 characters in each message at the time.

The Daily Orange: Hi Mr. Gonzalez, we’re wondering if we could ask about Mr. Trump’s presidential announcement?



Tommy Gonzalez: Sure, I’m not really that busy until 3 a.m., when Donald has his best ideas.

The D.O.:  So how did you get the job as Mr. Trump’s ghostwriter for Twitter?

T.G.: Well, I used to work at the AT&T store on 45th Street, and when Mr. Trump saw me set up his phone he said I had “tremendous typing skills.”

The D.O.: Most celebrities either tweet themselves or have PR people do it for them. Why have someone specifically for Twitter?

T.G.: Mr. Trump says so many great things, he often forgets to write them down. I just write them down for the world to see. Most PR people would.

T.G.: advise against many things he tweets, and they do, but he pays me to tweet what he wants. Plus his hands are too small for the keyboard.

The D.O.: So you’re saying Mr. Trump doesn’t listen to his PR people?

T.G.: Do you think any PR person would let him tweet “I have never seen a thin person drinking Diet Coke?”

The D.O.: With Trump’s announcement for president, what would it be like to tweet for a party nominee/president?

T.G.: Not sure if it will ever happen, but it would be interesting to see what Mr. Trump would come up with.

The D.O.: Will you have to be more serious and focused on policy with your tweets?

T.G.: Probably not. Mr. Trump’s twitter is very important because he can say whatever he wants. He wouldn’t be able to do that during a campaign.

The D.O.: Finally, do you think Mr. Trump would make a good president?

T.G.: Other than the fact that he only hired me because I was the only white worker at the AT&T store, if we can get past that probably isolated

T.G.: piece of discrimination, I think he could probably be a good president and fix the economy if the USA loaned him a million dollars.

The D.O.: Thanks so much.

Josh Feinblatt is a sophomore television, radio, film major. He’s still figuring out the whole twitter thing. You can follow him on Twitter @josh_is_fein or reach him at jfeinbla@syr.edu.





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