As soon as the president of the United States House of Representatives, the Democrat Nancy Pelosi, announced that she would start an investigation to determine whether Donald Trump committed crimes that could warrant an impeachment on September 24, 2019, the President resorted to the medium through which he communicates the most often: his Twitter account. The 21 posts shared by the American President (@realDonaldTrump) at the time include expressions such as “presidential harassment”, “witch hunt”, and a video in which he accuses the opposition of wanting to remove him with no reason.

According to an analysis by FGV DAPP, during the more than four months between the opening of the impeachment investigation and last Wednesday (01/29), Trump has tweeted exactly 4 thousand times – averaging a little more than one thousand tweets per month. Between the beginning of this mandate in January 20, 2017 and September last year, his monthly average of posts was significantly lower: around 330 posts per month according to websites that archive the President’s tweets.

On January 22 alone, Trump posted 142 times in his social network – his daily record since he took office. On that day, the seven Democratic deputies acting as prosecutors for the trial at the Senate began to present their arguments against the president. He is being accused of abuse of power and obstructing the Congress after the investigation at the House of Representatives found that there has been pressure for the Ukrainian government to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden, Trump’s potential rival in this year’s elections. The accusation claims that Trump withheld a $ 391 million aid package to Ukraine and used a visit by the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to the White House as a way to bargain.

* The Digital Democracy Room is a project of FGV DAPP in Brazil in partnership with Chequeado, Linterna Verde and Ojo Público. It’s goal is to monitor and analyze the digital conversations regarding the electoral context.