Americans want Trump to cut back on Twitter, poll finds

President-elect Donald Trump is known to have an itchy Twitter finger, and says he plans to continue his use of the social media platform after he takes the oath of office. But if it were up to the American people, Trump would cut it out.

According to a new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll, 69 percent of U.S. adults believe Trump’s Twitter habit is a bad idea because his rapid-fire messages “can have unintended major implications without careful review.”

The survey, conducted Jan. 12 to 15, found a vast majority of Democrats (89 percent) have a negative view of Trump’s use of Twitter. Even among Republicans, more people say Trump’s tweeting is a bad thing than those who think it is good.

In November, Trump said he would be “very restrained” in his use of Twitter as commander in chief, but will reserve the right to use it as a “method” to combat what he perceives as negative stories about him.

“I’m going to be very restrained, if I use it at all,” Trump said in an interview with CBS’ “60 Minutes” days after the election.

But as president-elect, Trump has been, well, not so restrained, lashing out at the media, U.S. intelligence officials, “Saturday Night Live” and the cast of Broadway’s “Hamilton,” among other targets. His freewheeling tweets, sometimes with typos, will often touch on natural security topics like nuclear weapons and Russian cyberattacks on the United States.

Related: Is there a method behind Trump’s Twitter madness?

Yet Trump still claims that he doesn’t enjoy using Twitter, but has no choice.

“I thought I’d do less of it, but I’m covered so dishonestly by the press — so dishonestly — that I can put out Twitter,” Trump recently told the Times of London. “I can go bing, bing, bing, and I just keep going and they put it on. And as soon as I tweet it out — this morning on television, Fox — ‘Donald Trump, we have breaking news.'”

“Look, I don’t like tweeting. I have other things I could be doing,” Trump said in an interview that aired on “Fox & Friends” Wednesday. “But I get very dishonest media, very dishonest press, and it’s my only way that I can get out and correct.”

The president-elect boasted that he has close to 50 million followers on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram combined. (This number is inflated, as many of his fans and foes likely follow him on multiple platforms.)

“When people misrepresent me … I have at least a way of saying it’s a false statement,” Trump said. “Now, if the press were honest, which it’s not, I would absolutely not use Twitter. I wouldn’t have to.”

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