Trump lashes out on Twitter ahead of social media 'summit'

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is lashing out at social media companies and the press ahead of a "Social Media Summit" he's hosting at the White House that will bring together mostly conservative groups.

Trump's Twitter messages this morning included jabs at "certain companies," the press and his Democratic rivals, whom he demeaned with schoolyard taunts. Trump predicted, without reason, the demise of the press and social media platforms if he loses to a Democrat in 2020 and hailed himself as "so great looking and smart, a true Stable Genius!"

The outburst came as Trump prepared for a conference that offers him a chance to play to his conservative base in the lead-up to the 2020 election. Trump has long complained, without evidence, that companies such as Google, Twitter and Facebook are "against me" and has threatened lawsuits to halt what he's claimed is their bias against conservatives.

Google, Facebook and Twitter weren't invited to the event, their representatives have confirmed.

Trump said in his tweets that a "big subject" of the summit would be "the tremendous dishonesty, bias, discrimination and suppression practiced by certain companies."

"We will not let them get away with it much longer," he said.

Trump has an estimated 61 million followers on Twitter and uses the platform on a near-daily basis to speak directly to his followers. He has a knack for tweeting outrageous, divisive or tongue-in-cheek missives that spur frenzied reactions from the mainstream press.

Trump, however, has accused Twitter, without evidence, of making it "very hard for people to join me" and "very much harder for me to get out the message." He has suggested the companies may be acting illegally and should be sued by U.S. regulators.