Charts show a 30-day moving average.

Six months into his presidency, President Trump continues to use his Twitter account to insult people. Increasingly, those people are journalists. His attacks against the news media are at their highest frequency and intensity since he took office.

In recent weeks, more than half of his insults have been directed at the media in some way, and the rate has been increasing for weeks amid recent reports that the White House is seeking to discredit journalists reporting on the allegations of collusion between Russia and members of the Trump campaign.

He has also increased attacks on two other prominent targets.

Who and what Donald Trump has been insulting on Twitter The media Obamacare Investigations Charts show a 30-day moving average. “Investigations and leaks” includes tweets attacking James Comey, Rod Rosenstein, leaks and investigations of the Trump presidency

And in the background still, despite the protests of his lawyers, Mr. Trump has continued to use Twitter to attack a diverse group of other people, places and organizations. These targets remain as wide-ranging as ever, including members of his own party, television personalities, the former F.B.I. director James Comey and television executives.

While the increased focus on the news media is new, the general behavior is consistent with a pattern we’ve identified before: Mr. Trump usually picks out a couple of chief enemies and attacks them until they are no longer noteworthy to him. This can last weeks or even months.

The kinds of people, places and things Trump has insulted over time Charts show a 30-day moving average.

The chart above shows this quite clearly: Jeb Bush, Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz and Hillary Clinton have all held Mr. Trump’s attention in this way. Nearly one in every three insults in the last two years has been directed at one of them. After winning the nomination, Mr. Trump narrowed his focus on Mrs. Clinton. After the election, his attention turned toward the subjects described above: primarily the media, Obamacare and the allegations of collusion.

These, too, fit a pattern. Mr. Trump has used simple and consistent messages, and his phrases have tended to be memorable – and in some cases textbook marketing. It’s an effective branding technique, researchers say, but Mr. Trump has not used it often to market his administration’s policies or legislation.

Finally, Mr. Trump has continued to find new targets. His pace of finding new people, places and things to insult has not changed since he became president. Our count stands now at 350, with more than 50 of them coming since his election. If he keeps to his current rate, he will have insulted more than 650 people, places and things by the end of his first term, and would reach more than a thousand by the end of a second presidential term.

Number of people, places and things insulted by Donald Trump on Twitter since he declared his candidacy for president: 350 300 250 200 150 100 50 0 2016 2017 Wins election Number of people, places and things insulted by Donald Trump on Twitter since he declared his candidacy for president: 350 300 250 200 150 100 50 0 2016 2017 Wins election