Trump has used his Twitter account as a potent campaign weapon. | AP Photo Trump: 'I’m the Ernest Hemingway of 140 characters'

Donald Trump didn't address the clamor over his call to require Muslims to register in a federal database during a forum at Wofford College in Spartanburg, S.C., on Friday, but he did brag about his Twitter prowess.

“I understand social media," he boasted. "Maybe better than anybody, ever."


"Somebody said I’m the Ernest Hemingway of 140 characters," he said.

Trump, who has turned his Twitter account into a potent campaign weapon, said that having a platform to blast out messages to his nearly 5 million followers is like “owning the New York Times without the losses” (a line he has used before).

If I don't like what someone says, Trump continued, imitating the sound of a typewriter, “bing bing bing — I say something really bad about them.”

It's a tactic Trump has used time again during this unusual presidential election, as on Thursday night, when he ripped into Ohio Gov. John Kasich in a series of 12 blistering tweets.

Trump spoke about his Twitter habits in an interview this week with Business Insider, whose editor Henry Blodget asked, "Is it you who tweets."

"I do," Trump responded. "But if it's like now, and I come up with something, I'll call the girl and she tweets it. Anything over like 7 o'clock I do it myself."