What Trump’s FDA Commissioner Could Teach Trump About Twitter
Executive Summary
President Trump and his FDA Commissioner, Scott Gottlieb, are both pioneers in using social media in their government roles while also being media savvy in the old-fashioned sense. The similarities end there.
Love it or hate it, there is no denying that Donald Trump’s Twitter account has had a transformative effect on the notion of Presidential communication.
In our own little corner of the world, FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb has played a similar pioneering role in using Twitter as a communications tool. (See sidebar.)
Like Trump, Gottlieb is using the social media platform to engage directly in conversations about the hot topics of the day. And – while Trump’s use of Twitter is often framed as speaking “directly to the people” – it is important to remember that Twitter is the media’s favorite social media platform. That is part of its appeal, since both Trump and Gottlieb are avid consumers of traditional media, and savvy in their understanding of how journalists work.
And yet, Gottlieb’s use of Twitter couldn’t be more different than Trump’s – even when the circumstances seem quite similar.
Consider Gottlieb’s tweets on the morning of Aug. 21.
It began like many a Trump tweet, with a complaint about a news article. “STAT reports ‘head of FDA’ met with anti-vaxxers to discuss ‘vaccine commission.’ That's not true-Neither I nor my senior team had such mtg,” Gottlieb tweeted. Then: “STAT never called me to request comment. I would have told them none of the members of my team was asked to have, nor granted, such meeting.” And: “Nor did other ‘Trump Administration officials’ at FDA, as STAT says, have such meeting. But STAT specifically references the ‘head’ of FDA.”
It wasn’t exactly a rant against “fake news” in the “failing New York Times” – but it wasn’t so far from many a morning series of Trump tweets. But it didn’t stay that way for long.
Gottlieb was reacting to an article published in STAT, headlined “As White House appoints pro-vaccine officials, plan for safety commission appears stalled.” It was based on an “exclusive” interview with Robert Kennedy Jr. who said earlier this year that he had been asked by Trump to chair a committee to investigate vaccine safety. (See sidebar.)
In the teaser for the article, STAT said that Kennedy had met with the “heads” of FDA and other agencies. Lower down, it made clear that the meeting was in fact with Center for Biologics Evaluation & Research Director Peter Marks – and that the meeting was confirmed by the FDA press office (and appeared in the agency’s public calendar).
And that’s when any Trump Twitter tantrum parallels ended.
Gottlieb tweeted that he had seen the morning STAT email – just the teaser – and that was what he was responding to. Then he tweeted: “I want to thank @statnews for quickly getting in touch; clarifying misimpression in how they teased their story in their ‘Morning Rounds/’”
And: “STAT says reporter, @HelenBranswell, had tried to call FDA for comment before filing. She's first rate. I take STAT and Helen at their word.” And finally: “Many thanks @HelenBranswell and @statnews for precision here in tweaking story and correcting morning rounds; and for jumping on it quickly.”
He also retweeted Branswell explaining that she never would have published the reference to an FDA meeting without contacting the FDA – and in turn explained the reason for his sensitivity to the issue: “I trust you did Helen. The issue is one of critical concern to me, and I don't want to leave any misimpression about MY views on the matter.”
That’s where Gottlieb’s use of Twitter is no longer just different in tone than Trump’s, but different in substance too: he has been vocal in defending the safety of vaccines and working to counter the debunked claims of link to autism in particular. On Aug. 19, in fact, Gottlieb retweeted a CDC article “14 diseases you almost forgot about – thanks to vaccines.”
Trump, on the other hand, has tweeted in the past that he has concerns about vaccine safety and the link to autism. That is why the apparent discussions with Kennedy about a vaccine “safety” committee upset so many in the public health community.
In a half dozen tweets, Gottlieb once again demonstrated that he isn’t afraid to speak out on that critical public health issue, no matter what the President thinks. And he also probably strengthened his relationship with one of the leading news outlets tracking FDA while doing so. That isn’t usually the result when Trump starts to Tweet.