i never thought donald trump the candidate had much of a future. i didn’t believe his xenophobic (afraid of foreign people) campaign would gather (get, obtain) enough support among americans for him to win and i looked forward to (happily anticipated) his loss being the end of the ridiculous publicity he for more than a year.
that’s not what happened though, and it was obvious that becoming president would mean even more media coverage. the past week has been especially intense.
fun esl practice 
richyrocks english on youtube
since his inauguration in january of this year, trump and members of his administration have been under investigation by the fbi (federal bureau of investigation) for possible inappropriate meetings/relationships with officials of other countries, most specifically russia. the scandal went to another level last week when on may 10, president trump fired fbi director, james comey.
president trump shaking hands with james comey when he was still the fbi director
trump’s inclination to tweet provocatively is responsible for a lot of the media coverage he receives and last friday he dropped (released, posted) one of his most controversial tweets to date (so far, until now).
James Comey better hope that there are no "tapes" of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 12, 2017
better as a modal (better hope) can be used to make a strong recommendation, but in this tweet it indicates that trump was threatening the former fbi director. the tweet anticipates that comey will leak (share secret information) details from their conversations to the press (media). at the same time, trump is hinting (gives the idea) that he has recordings of their conversations and he will use them to make comey look bad if he talks to the press.
this bucket is full of leaks. imagine that the water is important information
political commentary site motherjones.com posted a more direct, condensed version of trump’s tweet that maintained the modal better.
Trump: James Comey better STFU https://t.co/u6iHxXD0jc pic.twitter.com/eSx2EHTLxp
— Mother Jones (@MotherJones) May 13, 2017
stfu is an abbreviation of shut the fuck up, an aggressive, usually offensive way to tell someone to stop talking. this video by the youtuber pink guy is another (extremely offensive) example.
how much should politicians tweet? does trump need to stfu on twitter? have u seen any other examples of better as a modal online or in your day to day experience? share your views/examples under leave a reply
