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Nick Komjati

Todd Cecutti
Paul Batterson
Twitter Project: Trump vs. Environmental Agencies

1. Donald Trump continuously denies science on Twitter (Trump post Nov. 6, 2012)

Even before he was a candidate for President of the United States, Donald Trump
offended many in the scientific community with his public doubts about the existence of climate
change. Coming into his Presidential administration, some scientific government agencies knew
that they were going to face extreme resistance to climate protection policies and regulations.
2. National Parks retweeted a photo comparison of Barack Obamas inauguration crowd in
2009 and Donald Trumps in 2017 (Jan 21)

Even while Trumps inauguration was in progress, Twitter users spread a side-by-side
photo comparison of President Obamas 2009 inauguration crowd and Trumps 2017
inauguration crowd. Since the inauguration crowd gathered on the National Mall, one of the
National Parks, the National Park Service Twitter account retweeted one of the photographs.

3. Donald Trump responded negatively and asked the National Parks service to stop
posting to Twitter, assumedly due to their retweeting of the previously mentioned
side-by-side inauguration photos.
4. In a wave of executive orders, Trump ordered a freeze on EPA funding and approved
construction of Keystone XL and Dakota Access pipelines. These two decisions sent
shockwaves across the scientific community

Chuck Bangley @SpinyDag Jan 24

The Trump administration has frozen funds at the @EPA, keeping it from doing even basic
monitoring. #EPAFreeze

Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump Jan 24


Signing orders to move forward with the construction of the Keystone XL and Dakota
Access pipelines in the Oval Office. at The Oval Office

38,472 replies24,799 retweets122,812 likes


5. In response to the social media gag order and major executive orders, an alternative
National Parks twitter account popped up and accumulated over 45,000 followers.
Employees associated with the National Parks service are presumed to be the operators
of this account.

6. Greenpeace, a non-governmental environmental agency stood in solidarity with the


government agencies under persecution. People associated with Greenpeace climbed a
crane located behind the White House and unfurled a banner that read RESIST. The
photograph of the banner spread quickly on social media.
7. After this attempt to silence critics, rogue alternative websites began popping up as
organizations began siding with EPA and National Parks. Among the websites were:
AltUSForestService - U.S. Forest Service
AltFDA - U.S. Food and Drug Administration
Rogue NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration
Alt HHS - U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
AltEPA - U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
AltUSDA - U.S. Department of Agriculture
AltNOAA - National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
AltNWS - U.S. National Weather Service

NASA's rogue Twitter account, with over 600,000 followers by Friday, will share
peer-reviewed, evidence-based research, the majority revolving around climate change,
regardless of any confines Trump may put in place.
While it was expected that Trump would spar with environmental government agencies
as President, nobody anticipated that the battle would take place so publicly on Twitter. These
alternate accounts for government agencies could be used to disclose future scientific findings
that are filtered by the White House. As the Trump Presidency continues, this resistance aims to
find ways to defend the planet from people that halt climate progress.

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