Michelle Obama says she uses social media ‘like a grown-up’ in apparent Trump reference

It's important to 'spell check and check the grammar', former First Lady says

Michelle Obama answers a question during the first Obama Foundation Summit in Chicago, Illinois (REUTERS/Kamil Krzaczynski)

Michelle Obama took an apparent swipe at Donald Trump’s social media habits, saying she uses social media “like a grown-up”.

“How many kids do you know that the first thing that comes off the top of their head is the first thing they should express? You know? It’s like, ‘Take a minute. Talk to your crew before you put that [out there] and then spell check and check the grammar,’” the former First Lady said during a panel in New York, according to People.

While Ms Obama did not mention the President by name, Mr Trump is known for stream-of-consciousness bursts of tweets that periodically contain grammatical and spelling errors.

The morning after Ms Obama’s admonition, Mr Trump took to Twitter to blast out a series of messages to his 48.4m followers.

Among other things, Mr Trump attacked Attorney General Jeff Sessions - whom Mr Trump himself appointed and has the power to dismiss - for asking the Department of Justice Inspector General to examine alleged abuse of government surveillance.

Indirectly chiding Mr Trump for his social media use has become something of a habit for the Obama family. Last year, Barack Obama offered his advice to “think before you tweet”.

“Don’t say the first thing that pops in your head. Have a little bit of an edit function,” Mr Obama suggested during a conference in New Delhi.

At the time, the White House was fending off a backlash after Mr Trump shared messages from a far-right British organisation.