Trump’s nocturnal social media habits revealed as a third of president’s Truth Social posts happen at night: report

Trump Truth Social night posts surge to 33% as president stays up past 3 am: study

Muhammad Asghar | GlobalBeat

Donald Trump fired off 34% of his Truth Social posts between 10 pm and 6 am during his first 100 days back in office, according to data released Wednesday by social-media trackers.

The night-time tally, which includes 22 messages posted after 3 am, surpasses the 28% evening share he logged during his 2016-2021 term, researchers at the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics found.

Late-night posting from the White House has long unnerved staff who fear unscripted statements rattling markets or allies, yet Trump has told aides he sleeps “4, maybe 5 hours” and considers the pre-dawn hours his most productive.

The fresh numbers cover 1,300 posts from January 20 through April 30 and show a president even more active after dark than before. UVA analyst Nathan Babcock said the dataset captured every public Truth Social entry from the @realDonaldTrump account and cross-checked time stamps against official schedules released by the White House press office.

“We coded each post by hour and found the single busiest slot was 1 am to 2 am, with 14% of total output,” Babcock told reporters on a conference call. The researchers also logged 41 posts that arrived between midnight and 1 am, and another 38 between 2 am and 3 am.

White House deputy communications chief Margo Martin dismissed any suggestion that the schedule points to disarray. “The president speaks directly to the American people whenever he chooses,” Martin wrote in an emailed statement. “A 24-hour news cycle demands a 24-hour communicator-in-chief.”

Capitol Hill Republicans offered mixed reviews. Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska said she “would prefer policy roll-outs happen in daylight” but added she does not follow Truth Social herself. House Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan praised the pace. “He’s working while Washington sleeps,” Jordan told reporters outside the Capitol. “That’s why he gets results.”

Markets have reacted notably to several after-hours posts. On March 18, Trump wrote at 2:47 am that “tariffs on foreign steel could go to 50% this week.” Shares in Nucor jumped 5.2% at the next opening bell while the S&P 500钢铁 sub-index rose 2.7%. Three days later the administration formally announced a 25% tariff, lower than the post suggested, leaving some traders complaining about whiplash.

Foreign diplomats say they now keep overnight watches on the platform. “We have a junior officer assigned to 1 am to 4 am,” a European embassy staffer in Washington told GlobalBeat on condition of anonymity because the schedule is confidential. “It started as a joke. It’s now part of the job.”

The University of Virginia team compared Trump’s current pace with that of former President Joe Biden, whose official X account averaged 1% of posts between 10 pm and 6 am during the same 100-day window in 2021. Biden aides have said the Democrat keeps a regular bedtime near 10 pm.

Trump, 79, has openly mocked the idea of more sleep. “Plenty of time to rest when you’re dead,” he quipped at a March rally in Michigan. Axios first reported in 2018 that Trump often sends text-to-speech drafts to aides when he is upstairs in the residence, then reviews the final wording himself before hitting send.

Sleep researchers caution that going to bed after 3 am can impair decision-making even in healthy adults. Dr. Phyllis Zee of Northwestern University, who has not reviewed the UVA data, said chronic restriction to four hours doubles the risk of cognitive error. “The data on judgment and impulse control are very clear,” Zee told GlobalBeat. “The brain needs deep sleep to filter emotional reactivity.”

No recent public medical report on Trump has addressed sleep habits. His last formal physical, released in October 2024 during the campaign, declared him “fit for duty” without mentioning rest patterns.

The Truth Social platform itself rebounds from a late slump when Trump begins posting. Traffic rises 55% after 11 pm Eastern, according to SimilarWeb analytics. The privately held company merged with Digital World Acquisition Corp last year and reported 2 million daily active users in the first quarter of 2026.

Background

Donald Trump first joined Twitter in 2009 and used the site as a direct megaphone throughout his initial campaign and presidency, posting more than 25,000 times before the network suspended him after the January 6, 2021 Capitol attack. He launched Truth Social in February 2022 under Trump Media & Technology Group, marketing it as a free-speech alternative to mainstream platforms.

Posts from the @realDonaldTrump handle have carried legal consequences. Federal prosecutors cited his 2022 statement about the 2020 election in the criminal indictment returned last year, although the case remains on hold while the Supreme Court weighs immunity claims. New York prosecutors also introduced Trump tweets in the fraud trial that ended with a $464 million judgment in 2024.

What’s Next

The University of Virginia team plans to release a week-by-week heat map this summer showing which overseas events align with the president’s late-night bursts. Republican senators have requested a closed briefing from Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard on “notification protocols” when overnight posts touch classified subjects, an aide confirmed.

The findings evoke the same debate that trailed Trump’s Twitter feed, only now with more late-night concentration. Staff turnover in the current White House remains low by historical standards, yet insiders admit surprise at the surge after 3 am. “We thought the second term would slow him down,” one aide told GlobalBeat. “Turns out the opposite is true.”