In case you haven't heard, on Tuesday Twitter began testing a new 280-character limit for tweets.
Can’t fit your Tweet into 140 characters? 🤔 We’re trying something new with a small group, and increasing the char… https://t.co/y1rJlHsVB5
There was plenty of wailing and gnashing of teeth over the news.
The 280-character limit is a terrible idea. The whole beauty of Twitter is that it forces you to express your ideas concisely (1/47)
But it also made a lot of people immediately think of the platform's biggest, most influential voice: President Donald Trump.
And in one stroke, Twitter doubles the complexity of our nation's foreign policy.
Trump once that 280 character limit hits his account
Hot take: what does doubling Twitter’s character limit to 280 mean for Trump?
But it turns out Trump wasn't included in the 280-character test group, meaning that for now he's going to have to keep tweeting just like the rest of the haters and losers. Sad!
The new 280-character limit isn't for everyone. In a blog post, Twitter wrote that "we want to try it out with a small group of people before we make a decision to launch to everyone."
But Biz Stone, a cofounder of Twitter, tweeted Tuesday evening that Trump is not in the 280-character test group. A Twitter spokesperson later confirmed to BuzzFeed News that Trump was not included, explaining that the test group was selected at random.
The exclusion potentially limits Trump's tool box on a platform that he has used to connect with his followers, attack his political enemies, and dominate the news cycle for days.
Ratings for NFL football are way down except before game starts, when people tune in to see whether or not our country will be disrespected!
Case in point: Trump has used Twitter this week to sustain his growing feud with NFL players who kneel during the national anthem before games. Since entering politics and winning the president, Trump has similarly used Twitter to lash out at a dizzying array enemies in both politics and popular culture.
His tweets regularly rack up thousands of retweets and end up screenshot and shared on cable news for days.
Trump also regularly uses Twitter to reveal his geopolitical priorities, often with controversial results.
On Monday, for example, Trump weighed in on the ongoing crisis in Puerto Rico, as the island grapples with the aftermath of Hurricane Maria. The president's tweets drew some criticism, however, for focusing on Wall Street and the electrical grid.
Trump has also tweeted about the escalating situation in North Korea, referring to dictator Kim Jong Un as "Little Rocket Man" and warning "they won't be around much longer!"
Just heard Foreign Minister of North Korea speak at U.N. If he echoes thoughts of Little Rocket Man, they won't be around much longer!
North Korea's foreign minister responded by saying that the tweet amounted to a declaration of war. Asked for comment on Trump's tweet — specifically if it
violates the company's terms of service — a Twitter spokesperson told
BuzzFeed News it "does not comment on individual accounts for privacy
and security reasons."
It's still unclear if the 280-character test will be expanded to all Twitter users — including Trump. So for now, the president will have to keep posting unthreaded tweetstorms about world leaders, natural disasters, and TV ratings.