Trump tweets more than 100 times in one day as coronavirus death toll nears 80,000

Mr Trump did not break his previous record of daily tweets, set in January during impeachment proceedings

Donald Trump sent more than 100 tweets and retweets on Sunday, most of which promoted unsubstantiated claims about the investigation into collusion between his campaign and Russia.

The president appeared to spend much of his day on Twitter, even as the death toll from the coronavirus neared 80,000 and White House officials issued dire warnings about the state of the US economy. At the time of writing, the toll stood at 79,384.

Despite a handful of tweets about the pandemic, the vast majority were related to his former national security advisor Michael Flynn, who was fired by Mr Trump after pleading guilty to lying to the FBI.

The president flooded his Twitter feed throughout the day with articles and commentary about Flynn’s case, much of which promoted the claim that the Obama administration was trying to frame then president-elect Trump.

“The biggest political crime in American history, by far,” the president wrote in a tweet that shared a claim Barack Obama used “his last weeks in office to target incoming officials and sabotage the new administration”.

The justice department announced on Thursday that it was dropping charges against Flynn, in a move that has prompted concerns about judicial independence. Mr Trump has spent much of his time since then pushing various claims of a conspiracy about the Obama administration. One tweet simply read: “OBAMAGATE!”

Hillary Clinton, Congressman Adam Schiff, and former FBI Director James Comey also were stars in the president’s tweet storm, all of which attempted to connect the three to promoting anti-Trump hoaxes.

The US justice department unexpectedly dropped its criminal case against Mr Flynn, whom prosecutors accused of lying to the FBI during an investigation into ties between Russia and the 2016 Trump campaign.

In court documents filed on Thursday, the justice department said it was dropping the case “after a considered review of all the facts and circumstances of this case, including newly discovered and disclosed information”.

The decision represented a dramatic turnaround in the long-running case, which was one of the central prosecutions to be brought by special counsel Robert Mueller as part of his investigation into Russia meddling in the 2016 election.

Mr Trump on Friday accused Obama administration justice department officials of “treason” for their handling of Mr Flynn’s case.

“The Obama administration Justice Department was a disgrace,” the president said in the Oval Office. “It’s treason. It’s treason.”

The 100 tweets Mr Trump sent on Sunday did not quite reach his record since taking office of 142 — which was set during impeachment proceedings in January.

Earlier on Sunday, Mr Trump tweeted that he was “getting great marks” for his handling of the coronavirus pandemic, despite the US having the highest death toll in the world.

The president made the claim in a self-congratulatory tweet on Sunday morning that also criticised his predecessor Barack Obama for his administration’s response to Swine Flu.

“We are getting great marks for the handling of the CoronaVirus pandemic, especially the very early BAN of people from China, the infectious source, entering the USA,” Mr Trump wrote.

“Compare that to the Obama/Sleepy Joe disaster known as H1N1 Swine Flu. Poor marks, bad polls – didn’t have a clue!”