Without hosting a single press conference since July, president-elect Donald Trump has managed to direct national political conversation with a steady stream of colorful tweets, as you can see in the video above. The process goes something like this: Newspapers or TV outlets report something controversial about Trump, or one of his surrogates. Trump tweets about something completely different, and social media starts buzzing about it. Outlets then pick up on the chatter, drowning out discussion of the original story. Intentional or not, important or not, the tweets serve as a buffer, distracting attention from scandals like the $25 million Trump University fraud settlement and the sexual assault allegations against the president-elect. During the presidential campaign, Trump showed his skill at commanding attention. Now that he is the president-elect, Trump has the biggest stage of all from which to continue guiding the conversation around him, offering tweets that keep attention from lingering on any one topic for too long.