Trump’s strike at Twitter risks collateral damage inside the executive branch

President Donald Trump’s crackdown on Twitter may have an unintended effect — hampering the marketing of some of his administration’s signature efforts, from Army recruiting to anti-vaping campaigns. President Trump pushed to curb government advertising on Facebook, Twitter and Google as part of an executive order that went after the internet companies on multiple fronts. “We’re going to be doing none of it, or a very little of it,” President Trump said as he announced his order from the Oval Office on May 28, just two days after Twitter attached warning labels to a pair of his tweets. While the order’s advertising provision has received less attention than its attempt to restrict liability protections tech companies enjoy, it set the stage for a conflict inside the administration between agencies that depend on social media advertising and their boss — a president who has decided those digital spots are lining the pockets of anti-conservative Silicon Valley billionaires who stifle free expression. President Trump aims to cut off a channel the federal government uses to communicate with an increasingly online American public that it still needs to enlist into service, equip with the latest health information, count for the national census and provide with public benefits.