--- title: Presidential Debate: Donald Trump Defends His Twitter Use description: Trump defended his late-night tweets about Alicia Machado after the last debate canonical: https://time.com/4524470/presidential-debate-donald-trump-twitter/ author: Daniel White article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-10-10T03:40:19.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-19T07:45:30.479Z article:section: Politics og:title: Trump Defended Early-Morning Tweeting at the Debate og:description: During the most tweeted about debate ever og:url: https://time.com/4524470/presidential-debate-donald-trump-twitter/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt127b8dc0eb72490a/6988a94cf887dc4420e97bb2/trump-debate.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2560 og:image:height: 1440 og:image:alt: TIMEPOL og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Trump Defended Early-Morning Tweeting at the Debate twitter:description: During the most tweeted about debate ever twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt127b8dc0eb72490a/6988a94cf887dc4420e97bb2/trump-debate.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Donald Trump Defended Early-Morning Tweeting at the Debate > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. by [Daniel White](https://time.com/author/daniel-white/) ## Daniel White Oct 10, 2016 3:40 AM UTC  Republican Donald Trump sits in his chair during the second presidential debate at Washington University in St. Louis on Oct. 9, 2016. Republican Donald Trump sits in his chair during the second presidential debate at Washington University in St. Louis on Oct. 9, 2016. Andrew Gombert—EPA by [Daniel White](https://time.com/author/daniel-white/) ## Daniel White Oct 10, 2016 3:40 AM UTC Donald Trump defended his active Twitter usage at Sunday’s debate, especially a recent incident where he alleged that a woman had [a sex tape](http://time.com/4514358/donald-trump-alicia-machado-feud/) floating around. “No, it wasn’t ‘check out a sex tape,’ it was just take a look at the person that she built up to be this wonderful Girl Scout, who wasn’t a Girl Scout,” Trump said in reference to [a series of tweets](https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/781788223055994880) he sent out in wee hours of the morning after the first presidential debate that called former Miss Universe Alicia Machado “disgusting” after she [was referenced](http://time.com/4514684/alicia-machado-donald-trump-hilary-clinton/) by Hillary Clinton. During what turned out to be the most tweeted about debate ever, Trump refused to drop [his tax records](http://time.com/4517197/donald-trump-defends-leaked-tax-returns-pueblo/) but instead offered his number of followers on his social-media accounts. “Tweeting happens to be a modern-day form of communications, y0u can like it or not like it. Between Facebook and Twitter I have almost 25 million people,” Trump said at the second presidential debate. “I’m not unproud of it, to be honest with you.” Trump’s following on the two platforms is around 23.4 million, as he has an extremely active online presence. The Republican nominee dominated the online conversation during the debate, good or bad, with a 64% share of Twitter chatter and 76% on Facebook. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4524470/presidential-debate-donald-trump-twitter/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4524470/presidential-debate-donald-trump-twitter/"},"headline":"Donald Trump Defended Early-Morning Tweeting at the Debate","datePublished":"2016-10-10T03:40:19.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-19T07:45:30.479Z","description":"Sunday's debate was the most-tweeted about debate ever","url":"https://time.com/4524470/presidential-debate-donald-trump-twitter/","keywords":["Debates","Hillary Clinton","Social Media","2016 Election","facebook","twitter","Donald Trump"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt127b8dc0eb72490a/6988a94cf887dc4420e97bb2/trump-debate.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Daniel White","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/daniel-white/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt127b8dc0eb72490a/6988a94cf887dc4420e97bb2/trump-debate.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"TIMEPOL","caption":"epa05579016 Republican Donald Trump (L) sits in his chair as Democrat Hillary Clinton speaks during the second Presidential Debate at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, USA, 09 October 2016. 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