U.S. President Donald Trump’s May was dominated by the war in Iran and his continued pursuit to bring the entirety of the GOP to heel.
But the president had other things on his mind, too.
A POLITICO analysis of every single post Trump made last month on Truth Social, the social media site that he owns — totaling well over 800 posts or reposts — revealed a president focused as much on foreign policy as the beautification of the nation’s capital.
The president broached planned renovations to Washington 80 times last month, more than the combined number of posts he made about election integrity, immigration or crime in U.S. cities. It’s a rate that underscores his interest in making wholesale changes to the nation’s capital — from constructing a massive ballroom at the White House to resurfacing the reflecting pool on the National Mall in “American flag blue.”
“D.C. is being reawakened as to its Beauty, Elegance, and Charm,” he wrote in a post on May 20. “The ‘Granddaddy’ of them all will be The Reflecting Pool — 2,500 feet long, and almost 200 feet wide, the biggest such structure ever built, but also, the most troublesome for many Administrations in that, from the time it was built in 1922, it essentially never really worked!”
Yet he devoted by far the most airtime to his ongoing quest to shape the Republican Party in his image. His most frequent kind of post was about “Trump’s GOP”: endorsing downballot candidates, celebrating his success rate and reveling in attacking those who crossed him, like Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), who lost to a Trump-backed primary challenger.
https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/w2ara/2/Trump’s unusual social media use is far from new. For years, he’s broadcast his thoughts — first on Twitter, now via Truth Social — in a distinctly stream-of-consciousness manner. But his long-running social media commentary provides perhaps the best look at his priorities as president — and the topics that take up his interest.
Olivia Wales, a White House spokesperson, said in a statement that Truth Social is “one important way that the President communicates directly and authentically with the American people and the world.”
“The American people have never had a president as transparent as President Trump, who shares his thoughts with them in real time on all the important issues of the day,” she said.
To reach this analysis, POLITICO reporters cataloged each post the president sent in the month of May, and then classified them under broad categories — including the economy, media criticism or foreign affairs. No artificial intelligence was used to describe the president’s posts, and each post was only included in one main category, even if Trump mentioned multiple topics in an individual post.
The now three-month-long conflict in Iran has also remained top of feed. Trump posted about the war 68 times in May, reiterating his belief in the importance of ensuring Iran does not acquire a nuclear weapon and projecting confidence in his ability to achieve peace.
“If I make a deal with Iran, it will be a good and proper one, not like the one made by Obama, which gave Iran massive amounts of CASH, and a clear and open path to a Nuclear Weapon,” he wrote on May 24. “Our deal is the exact opposite, but nobody has seen it, or knows what it is. It isn’t even fully negotiated yet. So don’t listen to the losers, who are critical about something they know nothing about. Unlike those before me who should have solved this problem many years ago, I don’t make bad deals!”
Images and iconography — from apparent AI-generated images of Trump’s face on Mount Rushmore to genuine photos of himself in front of the American flag — made up the third largest category of posts.
One stood out: an AI-generated image of the president walking alongside a well-muscled alien in what appears to be Nevada’s famed Area 51.
The president’s account was most active between 10 and 11 p.m. in May, with more than 78 posts coming during that window.
https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/bkx65/3/Other major themes emerged: Trump focused on grievances with his political rivals and accusations of corruption against them 55 times in May, accounting for roughly 7 percent of his posts.
He posted insults against Democrats 32 times, and about election integrity 29 times. The president issued 22 posts on the economy or issues of affordability, 11 on immigration and 17 on other domestic policy issues. Nine focused on the president’s own health, particularly his series of recent physical examinations at Walter Reed and his scores on cognitive tests.
Methodology
Trump’s posts between 12 a.m. on May 1, 2026, and 11:59 p.m on May 31, 2026, were collected from his Truth Social feed, and each post was categorized by POLITICO reporters. Any posts that may have been posted in May but deleted before May 28 may not be reflected in the overall count. The president’s reposts were included in the overall count if they appeared in his primary feed, which is visible to followers, even if they were not authored by him. About 9 percent of his posts were reposts, and they did not factor into the analysis of his most frequent posting times.