In response to Trump’s predawn Twitter rant against Venezuelan American beauty queen, Clinton campaign posted plans to create National Service Reserve

This article is more than 3 years old

This article is more than 3 years old

In response to Donald Trump’s predawn Twitter rant against a Venezuelan American pageant queen, Hillary Clinton’s campaign mocked the Republican presidential nominee with a 3am tweetstorm of her own.

Unlike in the Republican nominee’s late-night postings, there was no mention of an apparently fictional sex tape.



Taking a page out of Trump’s playbook, Clinton’s official Twitter account let off a volley of tweets focusing on national service in the early morning hours Saturday, carrying over a theme from the fourth of Clinton’s “Stronger Together” series of speeches.

“It’s 3:20am. As good a time as any to tweet about national service,” the first tweet said, linking to a post on Medium outlining Clinton’s proposals plans for the creation of a National Service Reserve, a civilian equivalent of the National Guard.

Clinton’s four follow-up posts, all sent between 3:20am and 3:30am, reiterated the candidate’s national service platform, which includes tripling the number of volunteers in the AmeriCorps program and doubling their college scholarships.

Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) It's 3:20am. As good a time as any to tweet about national service. https://t.co/6hRCC16UiV

Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) There are hundreds of thousands more @AmeriCorps applications than spots. Horrible! Let's expand it from 75,000 annual members to 250,000.

Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) Too many talented young people pass up on programs like @Peacecorps because of student loans. Let's use GOOD JUDGMENT & lighten that burden.

Only one additional tweet alluded to Trump, urging voters to ignore “the haters who describe America as hopeless and broken”. Trump has a long history of deriding critics, whom he calls “the haters”.

Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) Remember, don't believe the haters who describe America as hopeless and broken. We should lift each other up, not tear each other down.

Between 3.20am and 5.30am early Friday morning, the Republican presidential nominee posted a string of messages criticizing a former Miss Universe, Alicia Machado, and urging American voters to “check out sex tape”, although no such tape appears to exist.

This week, the former pageant queen recounted how Trump called her “Miss Piggy” and “Miss Housekeeping”, and Clinton cited her story in the first presidential debate on Monday.

On Friday, Clinton called Trump’s tweets “unhinged, even for Trump”, and asked an audience in Coral Springs, Florida: “Who gets up at three o’clock in the morning to engage in a Twitter attack against the former Miss Universe?”

Trump defended the tirade, telling his followers that they should feel reassured that their president would be up at all hours to address a crisis.