Trump's Twitter Antics Continue to Deflect Attention From Issues

This is the age of Twitter (TWTR) and that means that everyone's deepest thoughts can be broadcast to the world in 140 characters or less.  That's assuming your deepest thoughts can be boiled down to 140 characters. Most of the time, people on Twitter blast away comments and they largely go unnoticed. The times they are a changin.

Donald Trump is rewriting the playbook for media, but what's really going on?  Here's a recent Tweet.

Nobody should be allowed to burn the American flag - if they do, there must be consequences - perhaps loss of citizenship or year in jail!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 29, 2016

 

There's so much to say here. For instance, why would someone lose their citizenship for burning a flag? Many would argue that it is simply an inanimate object and this would constitute a 1st Amendment right, free speech. Would someone also lose citizenship for murdering another citizen?  Logic would suggest he is not trying to rewrite the laws of the land.  In fact, this type of thing would need to be decided through legislation, not a tweet. (Sounds stupid to put that in writing.)

Unfortunately, I don't believe that Trump really believes any of that. Instead, he is playing a masterful game of media deception. He is deflecting people's attention from the actual policy moves that he is making on a daily basis.

For instance, he recently announced Tom Price (R-GA) would be Health and Human Services Secretary. This is a man that co-sponsored a bill entitled "Repeal the Job Killing Healthcare Law."  So, it's no surprise that the Affordable Care Act is on the chopping block, but what does that mean exactly?  It's hard to tell because the media appears to be in a frenzy over Trump's Twitter account.  In early trading, Anthem (ANTM) is down marginally, while Cigna (CI) is up. That's a fairly muted reaction by health insurance investors.  Other stocks like McKesson (MCK) and Cardinal Health (CAH) are also shrugging off the news.  Trump made no mention of the pick on his Twitter page.