Trump courts Sanders supporters, plays greatest hits in Reddit AMA
Donald Trump kicked off his Wednesday with a long and controversial morning press conference, and he ended it this evening with an Ask Me Anything session on Reddit that served as an opportunity for his biggest fans to interact with the Republican nominee. It was also an attempt to appeal to frustrated Bernie Sanders supporters who might be interested in joining his cause.
Over the course of 90 minutes, Trump answered 13 questions — most of them in brief replies, mainly working through his greatest hits. He cited his immigration plan on his website, referenced “Crooked Hillary,” reaffirmed his love of winning and expressed his support for the nation’s police. One user asked about what he would like to convey to disillusioned Sanders supporters or anyone else considering a third-party vote.
“Though Bernie is exhausted and has given up on his revolution,” replied Trump, “many of his voters still want to keep up the fight. I expect that millions of Bernie voters will refuse to vote for Hillary because of her support for the war in Iraq, the invasion of Libya, NAFTA and TPP, and of course because she is totally bought and sold by special interests. She and her husband have been paid millions and millions by global corporations and powerful interests who will control her every decision. She is their puppet, and they pull the strings.”
“We welcome with open arms all voters who want an honest government and to fix our rigged system so it works for the people. This includes fixing one of Bernie’s biggest issues, our terrible trade deals that strip our country of its jobs and wealth.”
He did not address the United States’ relationship with Russia, the biggest subject in Wednesday’s news cycle. He also did not weigh in on net neutrality or marijuana legalization, two issues frequently raised by the Reddit questioners.
For comparison’s sake, President Obama answered 10 questions during his 2012 AMA. Ask Me Anything (AMA) is a popular style of post on Reddit, with everyone from presidents to celebrities to people with odd jobs invited to hang out and field questions from the community.
The event occurred on Trump’s home field, as the submitted questions were all heavily moderated by the subreddit (community) dedicated to him, /r/The_Donald. The subreddit has not been without controversy, as some members have actively recruited white nationalists to join.
Generally, users post questions and then the community votes them up or down — but concerns that anti-Trump forces would overpower the system led to the deletion of any trolling questions and the banning of the accounts that asked them. Any posts by new accounts were also automatically removed. The Ask Me Anything was essentially turned into Ask Me Anything (That Was Approved by Some of My Biggest Fans).
Trump’s newly created Reddit account posted an initial message at 6:30 p.m. ET, soliciting questions:
Hello The_Donald readers and the entire Reddit community — this is going to be SO huge and I’m looking forward to answering your questions. I’m doing this in flight to visit the great people of Toledo, OH, so Internet connection might be spotty — I promise you, I’ll answer all the questions I can. I want to do BIG things for America and as your President, I WILL Make America Great Again! Be back in 30 — 7 p.m. ET!
By 7:00 p.m., users had posted nearly 12,000 comments. Trump’s first answer was in response to a question about whether he was concerned that Hillary Clinton might try to steal the election. “Voter fraud is always a serious concern and authorities must be vigilant from keeping those from voting that are not authorized to do so,” wrote Trump’s Reddit account. In response to a separate question, Trump said that he thought NASA was “awesome.” A moderator posted that Trump had lost Wi-Fi when his plane landed for a rally in Toledo, Ohio, which explained the lack of answers early on in the session. The post was updated around 8:00 p.m. to say he was heading to the rally in Toledo, but had had “such a great time answering your questions.”
Preparations began on The Donald subreddit as soon as the AMA was announced on Monday night. There was a post earlier Wednesday (entitled “HEY GUYS – WE’RE HAVING AN AMA WITH THE NEXT PRESIDENT TONIGHT!”) asking everyone to abstain from foul language, and that they’d quickly ban any troublemakers or Hillary Clinton supporters who tried to join the conversation. There was also a “fact sheet” provided for the media that they knew would be covering the event, which included information on the size of the community and its level of activity versus the Clinton campaign.
The Donald subreddit is not just a place for Trump supporters to gather, but also a place for the candidate himself to gather material for his social platforms. A recent example was a tweet with the image of a “Frozen” book Trump sent out in early July. That exact image had appeared on the /r/The_Donald one day before the Republican nominee published it.
