Trump: I don't like tweeting

President-elect Donald Trump, who has used Twitter to great effect throughout his public life, said Tuesday that he would actually rather stay off social media, if only he was treated fairly by the press.

“Look, I don't like Tweeting. I have other things I could be doing,” Trump told Fox News host Ainsley Earhardt in an interview taped Tuesday and broadcast on Wednesday morning’s “Fox & Friends.” “But I get very dishonest media, very dishonest press. And it's my only way that I can counteract.”


Trump told Earhardt that he intends to continue using Twitter after he is inaugurated as president on Friday.

With more than 20 million followers, Trump has relied often on his Twitter account to disseminate his message free from the filters and fact-checkers of the mainstream press. Even his most mundane posts garner thousands of likes, retweets and replies.

But his Twitter account has also been a weapon of sorts for Trump, who has used the social media site to lash out at critics.

Those public feuds, most recently with Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.) but also with the parents of a deceased Muslim Army captain, a former Miss Universe, an Indiana union chief, the speaker of the House of Representatives and a bevy of reporters and media outlets, have at times weighed down his campaign and transition.