Is Donald Trump’s staff trying to cheer him up by buying him fake new Twitter followers?
On Sunday evening, Donald Trump complained on Twitter that his social media posts were being distorted by the media. This was followed immediately by his decision to begin blocking people who were making fun of him on Twitter (link). Since that time, based on research we’ve done on archive.org, Trump has begun gaining new Twitter followers at more than twice his usual rate – and the majority of these new followers are obviously fake accounts.
Trump’s Sunday night Twitter massacre led to the question of whether he’s still in charge of his Twitter account, as his complaint used a number of fancy words that have never previously shown up in Trump’s vocabulary. Did his handlers take over his Twitter account on Sunday and begin blocking his haters so he won’t see them? If so, are they now buying him a bunch of fake new followers in order to boost his total number and cheer him up?
At the time this article has been published, here’s what Donald Trump’s newest Twitter followers look like:
The above Twitter accounts are typical of the vast majority (not all) of Trump’s new followers over the past few days. The lack of a profile picture gives away that they’re probably not real. And if you click through you’ll find that these accounts have brand new creation dates, no followers, and no tweets. In other words, they’re the lamest of fake accounts. So what’s going on here?
We’ve spoken with a few social media experts. They’ve concurred that while it’s not necessarily provable, there’s only one logical explanation for this kind of sudden growth from obviously fake accounts: whoever is now running Donald Trump’s Twitter account has decided to boost his follower total by purchasing fake new followers. We won’t link to them, but if you google something like “buy twitter followers” you’ll see that such services – which certainly violate Twitter’s terms of service – do exist. Moreover, the pricing scales reveal that it’s not particularly expensive, as long as you’re willing to settle for obviously fake new followers; believable looking fakes seem to cost far more.
So while we can’t prove that Donald Trump’s handlers have taken over his Twitter account and begun artificially boosting his follower total, it sure does look like that’s what’s happening. Trump is almost singularly obsessed with comparing himself to former President Barack Obama, who has three times as many Twitter followers. Is that what this is all about? If you’re a regular reader, feel free to support Palmer Report
