The tweets that have defined Donald Trump's presidency

US President Donald Trump’s time in office has been nothing if not controversial, with a number of issues arriving in large part thanks to his use of Twitter.

From his first day in office, he has used the platform to speak about everything from relations with Russia, China and North Korea – causing global concern about his passion for sharing diplomacy in 280 characters – as well as attacking his enemies and railing against the US court system.

His output has ranged from the serious, to the ridiculous – see the reaction to his tweeting of the non-word “covfefe”. But, however erratic the tweets may have appeared at times there is no doubt Mr Trump has achieved a connection with the public – for good or ill – that few world leaders can match.

There were also recurring themes like assigning demeaning nicknames to his adversaries: Crooked Hillary [Clinton], Lyin’ Ted [Cruz], Sloppy Steve [Bannon], among others.

Among his 2,593 tweets in the last year, he has tweeted 103 times disparaging various media outlets, 105 times about Russia, called his defeated presidential rival Hillary Clinton “crooked” 37 times, and used his signature hashtag #MAGA or some form of “Make America Great Again” 105 times.

While critics have felt the dignity of the office of the president has been diminished, Mr Trump has his supporters on the micro-blogging platform – including a number of right-wing commentators, but also thousands of regular users as well.

“Official” Presidential statements

Mr Trump hit the ground running as soon as he was sworn into office. He began by using both his official @POTUS – President of the United States – account but it quickly became apparent he would defer to using his personal @realdonaldtrump account for much of his public outreach.