The uses and abuses of Twitter will doubtless be studied by historians in decades to come. It shows us the entire ruling class strafing one another in the digital ether, but with disturbing real-life implications. “The Democrats now own the shutdown!” Mr. Trump declared to his 56.3 million followers, as if he were commenting on a baseball game, even though it meant tens of thousands of government employees could soon be without a paycheck.

There is one positive way of looking at this whole situation: The smoky back rooms are all gone now, making way for a 24-hour feed that chronicles every bit of the action under klieg lights. There are no secrets, no side deals in the shadows, no quiet signaling. Instead, it is all text and no subtext, moving from action, reaction, reaction to the reaction and so on.

We used to say no one should see the sausage being made. But the digital age of Twitter and Trump turns that on its head. You see not only the making of the sausage, but also the goring of the pig and the butchering, too, followed by the eating of the sausage and then what happens after that. Nothing is left unsaid, even if nothing that’s being said means much at all.

It also makes one wonder exactly what Mr. Trump would do without Twitter, which has become his best and only true way to communicate. He can certainly go on television and he does; he can make a live speech and he does; he can stand out on the White House lawn and he does. But it’s not the same. The lightning-fast, easy-hit addiction of Twitter has Mr. Trump hooked like none other.

And there are zero alternatives online. Facebook is too bloated and slow; Snapchat is too small and hard to use for the olds; Reddit is a hot mess. There is no other digital harbor for Mr. Trump’s carnival barker show, no place where both the left and right can react and where all the media gathers.

So what would happen to the president who governs by tweet if he finally did or said something that forced Twitter to throw him off the platform? Could he do his job at all?

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