There's a common question that people might ask: Is the world better off if Donald Trump
stayed off Twitter?
I actually think what I would just rather see is Donald Trump not be mean on Twitter.
I really worried when Donald Trump started using Twitter as a way to be demeaning and
degrading, and he would call people out, he would attack people's character.
And that to me was very frustrating, when I watched candidate Trump take his rhetoric
from the campaign trail, use Twitter to elevate that kind of toxin into our American dialogue.
And now he's president of the United States, and I do worry about foreign policy done by
Twitter.
Not because it couldn't be a strategic use of larger-scale messaging.
I mean, Donald Trump seems to have followers all over the globe.
I just worry about him using that platform in a way that could be shooting from the hip,
that could be dangerous.
Could undermine even his aspirations for peace in communities, or for solving international
conflicts.
So the great thing about Twitter is it's this platform that's neutral, but it's a powerful
platform, in the same way that radio became powerful in
politics.
On a Sunday night a week after my inauguration, I used the radio to tell you about the banking
crisis and about the measures we were taking to meet it.
In the same way that TV, suddenly in the Kennedy-Nixon debates, became a powerful platform.
The candidates need no introduction.
The Republican candidate, Vice President Richard M. Nixon, and the Democratic candidate, Senator
John F. Kennedy.
Well now technology, innovation, has brought us to a new level of social media.
Since I've been in Newark politics, I've noticed that a lot of people pick on cities in America.
And so I get kind of tired of that, and a long time ago I began to respond to people
who had big platforms, who were attacking our city.
My first person was Conan O'Brien, who, on his show, attacked us.
The mayor of Newark, New Jersey, wants to set up a citywide program to improve Newark
residents’ health.
That’s good.
If the health care program would consist of a bus ticket out of Newark.
It wasn't even on social media, but I responded with social media
Last week Conan O’Brien took a swing at our city.
And before you knew it, this Cory-and-Conan kerfuffle, this fight we kept going back and
forth on social media and on his show, that it ended up getting millions and millions
of people tuning in to a fight where I was getting a chance to brag about Newark.
You failed to understand that city is one of the fastest-growing cities in the Northeast.
I’m officially putting you on the Newark, New Jersey, airport no-fly list.
Try JFK, buddy.
Eventually I went on The Tonight Show With Conan O'Brien.
The two buried the hatchet in their tongue-in-cheek standoff.
O’Brien called it the most expensive joke ever told, making a $100,000 donation to Mayor
Booker’s Newark Now charity.
And so my point is that I've learned that social media can be a great platform.
That when you encounter people who are trolling cities, that you can do something about it.
So whether it's Conan O'Brien, Mindy Kaling,
Cory Booker?
I can’t believe he came.
I guess anything to get out of Newark.
I think that when you defend your city, but defend it with kindness, and defend it with
humor, or defend it with generosity of spirit, you actually can turn people around, or at
least get them to profess the truth.
That America is great, and America's great because we have great communities everywhere,
including in places like Newark.
Look, I don't wanna throw advice at President Donald Trump.
I mean, clearly he must think to himself, "I don't need Cory Booker's advice; look how
well I'm doing.
I'm president of the United States."
But I do think that Donald Trump would shock the world if he shifted and just said, "You
know what?
I'm going to live kindness on the internet.”
Our president should always be calling us to be a nation that we actually all wanna
be, a nation that is indivisible, a nation that works for liberty and justice for all.
And to do that we must all evidence patriotism, which is love of country.
And to love your country, you got to love your fellow countrymen and countrywomen.
And so, Donald Trump, stay on Twitter, but just elevate the conversation.
Be a uniting force, not a dividing force.
Be an elevating force, not a degrading force.