Slate "Two Years Into His Presidency and Donald Trump Still Doesn't Use Computers"

[NRaleighLiberal]

Trump does not compute

https://slate.com/technology/2018/08/trump-still-doesnt-use-computers-and-calls-an-ipad-the-flat-one.html

Another morning, another presidential Twitter tirade to contend with. Apparently President Donald Trump Googled “Trump News” earlier today and found the results to be very biased.

Google search results for “Trump News” shows only the viewing/reporting of Fake News Media. In other words, they have it RIGGED, for me & others, so that almost all stories & news is BAD. Fake CNN is prominent. Republican/Conservative & Fair Media is shut out. Illegal? 96% of....

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 28, 2018
....results on “Trump News” are from National Left-Wing Media, very dangerous. Google & others are suppressing voices of Conservatives and hiding information and news that is good. They are controlling what we can & cannot see. This is a very serious situation-will be addressed!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 28, 2018
Presidents: They’re just like us, they Google themselves! Except maybe not. As New York Times White House reporter Maggie Haberman reminded us via Twitter, actually, Trump does not use a computer at all, meaning a staffer must have Googled on his behalf.

He doesn’t use a computer. Someone is doing the googling but not him. https://t.co/8QAdK7s69t

— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) August 28, 2018
ABC News reporter Tara Palmeri, who also covers the White House, further explained that Trump sometimes reads on an iPad, which he refers to as “the flat one.”

sometimes Trump reads things on a iPad that he calls "the flat one" https://t.co/ZnbWRRSXY4

— Tara Palmeri (@tarapalmeri) August 28, 2018
As journalists covering Trump closely, Haberman and Palmeri are well-positioned to be privy to these sorts of details. (As an aside, “the flat one” is a pretty funny thing to call a tablet, evoking a high-low mix of a snobby type of coffee drink called “the flat white” and “Suck my fat one,” a decidedly not-snobby insult. The flat one! He really does have a way with words.)

But more critically, this once again raises the question of whether the president of the United States knows how to use a laptop, and the answer seems to be “nope.” This is hardly the first time Trump’s tech habits, or lack thereof, have been talked about. As recently as 2016, it was reported that Trump rarely uses a computer: He preferred to read paper newspapers and magazines and to have emails printed out for him. He has Barron for the cyber, remember?

And even though Trump has been president for two years now, he’s still stuck in his analog ways. Granted, he hasn’t had a ton of time to pick up new skills. There’s a country to govern, as well as golf games to play. And whoever said a president had to be tech-savvy, anyway? It’s not like he needs to know about hacking, privacy, algorithms … hmmm. Well, anyway, at least we’ve got the flat one now.

[drray23]

1. I think it's on purpose.

He never used email as well. This way, there is nothing tracing stuff to him. Typical mob boss move.

[gratuitous]

2. Nope, addicted to his "smart" phone

Which everyone on the planet, including newborn infants, knows has been hacked and everything he does on his phone is known to intelligence gathering agencies - friendly and hostile - all over the planet.

[phylny]

3. He's intellectually incurious.

My father, who just turned 91, and is not a learned man, navigates his laptop just fine.

[HipChick]

5. My mum is in late 80's...I have to ban her from bringing her iPad, and phone to the dinner table..

but then she ignores me anyway, and stays glued into them...she navigates just fine..

[Meadowoak]

4. Trump can't even use a speakerphone.

[0rganism]

6. smart phones count as computers, imho

also the very first image under the headline shows an open laptop on the dipshit's desk

he may not use a computer *well*, but that's different. that puts him in the same boat as much of the rest of the computer-using population as far as i'm concerned.

there are plenty of legitimate grounds to criticize Agent Orange, this really is not one of them.

[sinkingfeeling]

7. Nor telephones.

[muriel_volestrangler]

8. And he remembers when Alexander Graham Bell invented them! (nt)