How Has Trump Reacted to Mueller?

Robert Mueller III will testify before the House Judiciary Committee tomorrow morning on the findings of his 22-month special counsel investigation and the 448-page report on Russian interference into the U.S. 2016 presidential election, Trump campaign contacts with Russian officials, and alleged obstruction of justice by the president. Mueller did not charge President Trump with obstruction, but also did not exonerate him either.

President Trump’s Twitter patterns around the special counsel investigation have evolved over the past 19 months. In 2018, President Trump primarily used the phrase “witch hunt,” an epithet for the special counsel investigation. According to data collected by the Trump Twitter Archive, @realDonaldTrump mentioned the phrase “witch hunt” 20 different times in May 2018. During that same time, the president never named Mueller on the social media site.

President Trump’s twitter behavior seemed to shift in step with the final stages of the special counsel’s investigation. Between March and April of this year, Mueller submitted his findings to the Justice Department, Attorney General Barr then released a redacted version of the report later the next month. During that same time, President Trump increasingly starts to mention Mueller by name, trading the “witch hunt” phrase for specific mentions of the special counsel. In May, Trump mentions Mueller by name 49 different times. By comparison, “witch hunt” only comes up 13 times that month.