brian todd explains. reporter: for a president obsessed with polls, ratings and adulation there s nothing he loves more than the popularity barometer in his pocket, his twitter account. i guess we have 60 million. reporter: in politico, they say in a meeting he stopped a conversation with frustrated lawmakers about his troops with syria in order to consult his twitter account. quote, get dan scavino in here. scavino, trump s social media adviser walked. in. he then instructed scavino to tell them how popular my policy is. scavino took them through how the president had gotten a popular response on social media. i think the thing that matters the most by the president is that he be affirmed by the people who love him. the people on twitter who follow him and respond every time he says something. he uses twitter almost as a
trump s message to the masses. dan scavino is one of the original and trusted advisers at trump s side. he started as trump s golf caddy. here is brian todd. reporter: for a president obsessed with polls and ratings, there is nothing he loves more than the popularity barometer in his pocket, his twitter account. we have almost 60 million on twitter. reporter: the president has become so reliant on twitter that politico says in a meeting earlier this year, he stopped a conversation with frustrated lawmakers about his decision to pull troops out of syria in order to consult his twitter account. quote, get dan scavino in here, the president reportedly called out. scavino walked in. politico said trump instructed scavino to, quote, tell them how popular my policy is. he took the congressmen through the popular response he d gotten to the syria decision on social
president trump fired off a dozen tweets today from the russia immigration to iran underscoring how much he relies on twitter. a short time ago he defended his use of social media. we have spoken to historians who say the immediacy of twitter is intoxicating for donald trump and are worried that the extent to which he s turning to the social media feed is getting unhealthy. for a president obsessed with polls there s nothing he loves more than that popularity barometer in his pocket, his twitter account. i guess we have almost 60 million on twitter. reporter: he s become so relients that politico says in a meeting earlier this year he
i want to see if my friends are doing things without me. and 61% say i want to see if my posts are getting likes and comments. even though i was at school, i would still check my phone. people post things at school and stuff. i used to always worry. clinical psychologist dr. marianne underwood is the co-author of the study. it is stressful to be worrying about how people might have responded to what you ve put online. this is an age group that has a lot of anxiety about where they fit in, how they rank, what their peer status is. so they don t just get online to see how many likes or favorites they got. they re comparing their numbers to other people s numbers. some kids even buy likes and followers. yes, there s an app for that, too. why do they do it? think of social media as a popularity barometer. how do kids really boost their status? our study found it was actually bullying. or social aggression that did the trick. sometimes the aggression is
i want to see if my posts are getting likes and comments. i would still check my phone because people post things at school and stuff. you still always worry. clinical psychologist dr. marion underwood is the co-author of the study. it s stressful to constantly be monitoring and worrying about what people how people might have responded to what you put online. this age group has a lot of anxiety about where they fit in, how they rank, what their peer status is. they don t just get online to see how many likes or favorites they got. they re comparing their numbers to other people s numbers. some kids even buy likes and followers. yes, there s an app for that, too. why do they do it? think of social media as a popularity barometer. how do kids boost their status? our study found it was bullying or social aggression that did the trick. sometimes the aggression is hidden or covert and sometimes it s right there in your face. go die. stop trying to be popular.