But on Friday, Trump offered a backhanded compliment, writing on Twitter, “Yes, Arnold Schwarzenegger did a really bad job as Governor of California and even worse on the Apprentice … but at least he tried hard!”

On Iran, Trump warned that Tehran's leaders were “playing with fire” after a ballistic missile test. Iran claims the launch does not violate U.N. resolutions because the missile was not designed to carry a nuclear payload. But the Trump administration views the missile test as a provocation.

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The latest Trump tweet came two days after Michael Flynn, his national security adviser, appeared in the press briefing room to say that the United States was putting Iran “on notice” — without providing any specific details about possible action. House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) and others have suggested new sanctions.

“Iran is playing with fire — they don't appreciate how ‘kind’ President Obama was to them. Not me!” Trump wrote.

The Iranian foreign minister — also known for his affinity for Twitter — appeared to reply to Trump a day after a top adviser in Iran dismissed Trump as “inexperienced.”

“Iran unmoved by threats as we derive security from our people,” wrote the foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif. “We'll never initiate war, but we can only rely on our own means of defense.”

Trump also turned his attention to France, where a man tried to attack a French soldier with a knife near the Louvre museum in Paris. Bernard Cazeneuve, France’s prime minister, said the knife attack was clearly “terrorist in nature.” Trump's swift comments on the Paris incident contrasted with his silence on social media after six people were slain Sunday in a Quebec City mosque. The suspect, Alexandre Bissonnette, is a Canadian.

Trump also used Twitter to address a conversation he had with Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull on Saturday, in which Trump criticized a pledge by then-President Barack Obama to take in 1,250 refugees from holding centers in the Pacific. (“The worst deal ever,” Trump said, before abruptly ending what he described as his “worst call by far”.)

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“Thank you to Prime Minister of Australia for telling the truth about our very civil conversation that FAKE NEWS media lied about,” Trump wrote Friday. “Very nice!”

It was unclear exactly what Trump was referring to, however. Turnbull did not deny the candid and frank exchange between the two men, with sources close to him describing Trump as a “bully” in news reports.

In yet another tweet, Trump criticized the growing protest movement against his presidency, which on Wednesday evening grew violent at the University of California Berkeley, forcing the campus to cancel a planned speech by Breitbart writer and provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos.