WASHINGTON — On Monday afternoon, the president of the United States was just another person complaining online about his service provider.
Donald Trump wrote in a pair of posts on Truth Social that he was trying to hold a conference call with faith leaders from all over the country but was unable to start the call because of technical difficulties.
“AT&T is totally unable to make their equipment work properly,” the Republican president said in a post. “This is the second time it’s happened. If the Boss of AT&T, whoever that may be, could get involved — It would be good. There are tens of thousands of people on the line!”
Trump then followed up with another post in which he said, “AT&T ought to get its act together. Representatives for AT&T responded to a post from the White House press secretary sharing Trump’s complaints. “We’ve reached out to the White House and are working to quickly understand and assess the situation,” AT&T said.
AT&T reached out immediately, according to a White House official who was not authorized to speak publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity. The issue was resolved and the call started 20 minutes late,
AT&T said in a follow-up statement posted on X Monday night that it appeared “the disruption was caused by an issue with the conference call platform, not our network. Unfortunately, this caused the delay, and we are working diligently to better understand the issue so we can prevent disruptions in the future.”
Trump rarely shies away from posting his gripes on social media, whether the target is foreign leaders, media organizations, elected officials or telecommunication companies.
The call he was delayed from holding was not on his publicly released schedule.
Between 8,000 and 10,000 leaders of Christian, Jewish and Muslim faiths were on the call, the first of a series that the White House expects to regularly hold with religious leaders.
During the call, according to the official, Trump spoke for about 15 minutes and touted provisions in his big tax breaks and spending cuts bill, like the boost to the child tax credit, the Israel-Iran ceasefire and African peace deals he brokered, and the pardons he issued for anti-abortion activists.
