You’d think, by now, Donald Trump would learn to stay away from Twitter. His Twitter feed (and attempts to rally the service to his side) is more or less a relentless pile of mockery, especially since his own tweets contradict his actions as President. But his latest Twitter fiasco is something, even by those standards.
It starts, as it usually does on Twitter with a blocking spree. Specifically, Trump has been blocking various comedians and people making fun of him, notably Jimmy Kimmel writer Bess Kalb (who has shown herself to be the most delightful aspect of any Trump tweet):
OH. MY. EFFING. GOD.
The President of the United States just blocked me on Twitter because I hurt his feelings. #MAGA pic.twitter.com/oB5zTAs7In— Bess Kalb (@bessbell) May 29, 2017
But others as well, even as people have pointed out Trump (or his media director) can take the time to do this but not address, say, the tragedy at Portland over Memorial Day weekend.
https://twitter.com/jordansdiamonds/status/869562902860189697
There’s a problem, though. When you block a person who follows you, they’re not able to follow you and you can’t follow them. In other words, as Trump blocks people, his follower count on the social media network drops. So, some wonder whether Trump’s response has been to steadily increase his fake followers over time:
Ominous reports that Trump just gained five million bot followers are BS. He has tons of fake followers on twitter, but no recent spike. pic.twitter.com/HmKNjl6iRd
— Helen Kennedy (@HelenKennedy) May 30, 2017
In fact, if you visit his follower page, there are quite a few, shall we say, questionable accounts with no user icon, followers, biographies, or any other sign they exist other than to fill space. Currently it appears less than half of Trump’s 30 million followers are real. This in turn raises the next obvious question: He’s not spending our tax money on buying followers, right?
However, not everyone believes that Trump has been buying followers or, at least, not millions of them. CNBC’s Steve Kopack says the numbers don’t match up to that large of a claim, so this shall remain yet another Trump-related subject to make everyone argue.
https://twitter.com/SteveKopack/status/869601653284110336
(via John Nevin)