A former White House aide dished on how exactly President Donald Trump crafts his frequently confounding tweets, in an interview with Axios on HBO.

Cliff Sims, who previously served in the White House communications office until leaving in May, explained to Mike Allen and Jonathan Swan what it’s like when Trump dictates tweets to his aides.

“He’s meticulous with not just the words that he wants to use but the punctuation,” Sims said. “So he’ll say, you know, ‘Jonathan Swan at Axios is an awful terrible reporter dash dash capital S capital A capital D exclamation point.'”

Sims added that he believes Trump knows the power of his social media posting — particularly the quote-tweeting it spawns:

“I do think that he’s very cognizant of the power that he has to set the media narrative,” Sims said. “I have seen him talk about something that he wants to tweet, ultimately tweeting whatever that thing is, within literally a minute, reporters are now retweeting his tweet with their own comments on top of it.”

“He goes into the private dining room and within about 5 minutes, he can see this creation … how it’s playing out on the television,” he added.

The New York Times reported earlier this month that Sims received a seven-figure advance for his insider account of the Trump administration, Team of Vipers.

Read here.

[Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images]

Have a tip we should know? [email protected]