While Chuck Schumer complains that “America cannot afford a Twitter presidency,” Rupert Neate writing at The Guardian examines how President-elect Donald Trump’s use of Twitter has shaped the actions of major manufacturers before he has even taken office:

After his election win, Trump credited Twitter and other social media platforms with helping him beat Hillary Clinton despite her much higher advertising spending. “The fact that I have such power in terms of numbers with Facebook, Twitter, Instagram etc, I think it helped me win all of these races where they’re spending much more money than I spent,” he told CBS’s 60 Minutes programme.

Trump has said he will rest his Twitter fingers when he is sworn in as the 45th president on 20 January. “I’m going to do very restrained, if I use it at all,” he said in the same interview. However, he has continued to use Twitter during the transition period, taking aim at multinational companies as well as his political opponents and the media.

So far, it has produced results, with the French far-right leader Marine Le Pen applauding the Ford announcement as proof that “protectionism works”. Other companies have been affected by Trump’s solo social media campaign too.