Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley sent missives that were notable for directly addressing the president’s handle, @RealDonaldTrump. | J. Scott Applewhite/AP Left out of meeting, Republicans tweeted Trump GOP Sen. Grassley and Rep. King try to grab the president's attention through his favorite medium.

With some Republicans feeling cut out of presidential deal-making lately, two of them on Wednesday night and Thursday tried communicating with President Donald Trump via his favorite medium: They tweeted directly at him.

As Washington has reordered itself under the Trump administration, politicians have scrambled to go where they think the president is to get their message across. It’s not uncommon to see members of Congress on cable news — particularly Fox News — broadcasting to an audience of one.


So while many Republicans tweeted their reactions to reports of a deal between the president and Democrats on DACA — the Obama-era program supporting undocumented workers who came to the country as children — Rep. Steve King of Iowa, the noted immigration hard-liner, and Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley sent missives that were notable for directly addressing the president’s handle, @RealDonaldTrump.

Grassley tweeted what felt like a personalized text, all the way down to asking the president for a briefing:

@realDonaldTrump Morn news says u made deal w Schumer on DACA/hv ur staff brief me/ I know u undercut JudiCimm effort 4 biparty agreement — ChuckGrassley (@ChuckGrassley) September 14, 2017

Grassley’s tweet came hours after King blasted his frustration with reports of a DACA deal straight at the president:



@RealDonaldTrump If AP is correct, Trump base is blown up, destroyed, irreparable, and disillusioned beyond repair. No promise is credible. https://t.co/uJjxk6uX5g — Steve King (@SteveKingIA) September 14, 2017

@RealDonaldTrump Mr. President, I support your agenda, especially your no amnesty agenda. MAGA! https://t.co/8ZMUeTu5RN — Steve King (@SteveKingIA) September 14, 2017



King’s final tweet dug back into the president’s timeline, attempting to directly remind Trump of his own words (a common tactic on Twitter, but usually the province of liberal critics).

Grassley has used the tactic in the past, tweeting in March at the president about H1-B visas and last month about the importance of hurricane preparedness:

@realDonaldTrump #hurricane keep on top of hurricane Harvey dont mke same mistake Pres Bush made w Katrina — ChuckGrassley (@ChuckGrassley) August 25, 2017

To which Trump replied:



.@ChuckGrassley - got your message loud and clear. We have fantastic people on the ground, got there long before #Harvey. So far, so good! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 26, 2017

Many visitors to King and Grassley’s profile page won’t even see these tweets — they don’t appear on their default profile pages, you have to click over to the “Tweets & replies” screen. But by tagging the president, known for checking his mentions, King and Grassley made it more likely that their concerns will come to Trump’s attention.

As of 3:30 p.m. on Thursday, there was no response from @RealDonaldTrump.

