Imagine this: you are getting ready for work after a week of long business meetings, some of which you spent sick. Although you did not get the results you were hoping for, you still accomplished some goals and are excited to share with your boss. As you prepare for the day, you check your phone and are bombarded with messages from family, friends and coworkers, all asking if you are okay and if the news is true. Curious, you open a link that someone has sent you, and your world falls apart. You have been fired and your boss has already named your replacement. Via Twitter.
This wouldn’t fly in any office situation. Employers are expected to have at least some respect for their employees, no matter their level. This sort of mistreatment would go straight to human resources and the employer would face some major repercussions.
That is, unless your boss is commander in chief.
This situation may sound familiar because it is true and has been gracing every news network in the nation over the past week or so. Just before 8 a.m. on March 13, President Donald Trump tweeted that Mike Pompeo, director of the CIA, would replace Rex Tillerson as secretary of state. It was later reported by NBC that he found out he was fired from Trump’s tweet, and even though there had been tension between the president and his secretary of state, had no idea Trump was even considering his termination.
It is moments like these that make me nervous that the president even has a Twitter account at all. I am tired of waking up to tweets attacking a seemingly random politician or citizen who has crossed Trump. It is exhausting trying to keep up with who he is currently feuding with and which countries he has threatened because he is bored or thinks they have insulted him.
Employers and employees in today’s society are expected to hold themselves accountable on social media and represent the company they work for in a way that shows the company at its best. They should not be unprofessional, and are often severely reprimanded or even fired for using social media in a way that does not reflect the values of the company. Why should the president of the United States be held to a different standard?
Until Trump can successfully control himself and his early-morning urges to tweet whatever he dreamed up the night before, he should not have control of his own social media, especially his Twitter. We, as a country, cannot have a president who fires high-ranking employees and threatens other nations on Twitter whenever he gets ticked off. It is not a good reflection on the American people, and we should not have to worry about what we will wake up to in the morning.
Right now, one of the most dangerous tools in America’s arsenal is Trump’s Twitter, and it needs to be handled. Unless he can conduct himself in a more professional way, he should not be allowed to tweet. After all, that is how you teach a child who is throwing a tantrum–you take away his toys.
Sara Beth Bolin is a junior majoring in political science, anthropology, and journalism. Her column runs biweekly.
