President Donald Trump arrives at the White House after a visit his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida. Picture: Andrew Harnik/AP Photo

The President, who has just returned from his estate in Palm Beach, Florida, tweeted: “Meeting with Generals at Mar-a-Lago, Florida. Very interesting!”

But within a few hours, the post had disappeared from social media.

Why did the President delete this tweet, and did he break the law by doing so?Source:Twitter

For someone who has no qualms about offending people with wild declarations, the 70-year-old must have had a compelling reason to remove the tweet.

Strategist and part-time “Trump-splainer” Jeff Black jokingly took the credit for the deletion, having parodied the President’s deleted tweet, writing: “[White House chief strategist Steve] Bannon’s spying on Generals — making a list of true Regime Loyalists, in case lying traitors EVER challenge MY Presidency. Very Civil!”

Mr Trump has deleted tweets before. On February 17, he tweeted a list of “FAKE NEWS media”, finishing with: “Sick!” He then deleted it and posted it again with the final epithet removed to make space for the names of two more news outlets.

On January 21, he tweeted that he was “honered” to serve the American people. Moments later, the tweet was deleted.

Some have speculated that the former reality star’s tweet deletions may actually be illegal. The 1978 Presidential Records Act states that the President must obtain the “views of the Archivist of the United States” before disposing of any records.

While the tweets are posted from Mr Trump’s personal @realDonaldTrump Twitter account rather than his official @POTUS account, they are considered a matter of public record.

The White House and National Archives office have not responded to requests for clarification.