Trump Whines About Twitter, Says Follower Growth Was A 'Rocket Ship,' Now A 'Blimp'
President Donald Trump tweeted about how his Twitter is upsetting him this morning, complaining that his follower count has gone down and that the site has “stifled growth to a point where it is obvious to all.”
“A few weeks ago it was a Rocket Ship, now it is a Blimp! Total Bias?” reads Trump’s tweet from Friday morning.
Twitter has removed many people from my account and, more importantly, they have seemingly done something that makes it much harder to join - they have stifled growth to a point where it is obvious to all. A few weeks ago it was a Rocket Ship, now it is a Blimp! Total Bias?
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 26, 2018
Many on the site had a lot to say about the tweet:
Trump's over here coming out harder against Twitter for removing a bunch of automated bot/zombie accounts from his follow list than he came out against the person sending bombs all over the country to his political enemies
— Parker Molloy (@ParkerMolloy) October 26, 2018
As law enforcement report on bombs sent to a Democratic U.S. senator and CNN, the president appears to be watching Fox Business on delay.
Left, Varney & Co., 9:35 am
Varney: Twitter came out with their report that they lost users but they sold more ads.
Right, Trump, 10:05 am pic.twitter.com/CSpZnmsU6v— Matthew Gertz (@MattGertz) October 26, 2018
welcome to Blimplandia https://t.co/hU7vx3Os5x
— Adam Platt (@plattypants) October 26, 2018
After stoking more terror not 7 hours ago, Trump now tweets some bizarre conspiracy theory about Twitter removing his “follow” button on his Twitter account. (Spoiler alert: It’s still there.)
Trump is desperately trying to change the convo from the assassination attempts. https://t.co/qeouLoJtD4— John Scare-avosis 🇺🇸 (@aravosis) October 26, 2018
The people that Trump has repeatedly targeted with his inciting rhetoric and vitriol are now getting targeted with bombs. Trump has since used his presidential platform to blame bomb targets for the bombs and to talk about how Twitter purged some bots from his follower count. https://t.co/NqmEb2WF4T
— Brian Klaas (@brianklaas) October 26, 2018
Top election issues:
1. Migrant caravan
2. Mail bombs
3. Twitter shadow banning Trump.— Stephen Miller (@redsteeze) October 26, 2018
Despite the crises happening around the world this week, it’s not unusual for Trump to publicly talk about Twitter on Twitter. Amid his daily posts on the platform, he often shares his grievances.
On Friday morning, alongside his Twitter tweet, Trump tweeted a conspiracy theory on a series of mail bombs sent to CNN and some of his high-profile critics and his feelings on unauthorized immigration.
Republicans are doing so well in early voting, and at the polls, and now this “Bomb” stuff happens and the momentum greatly slows - news not talking politics. Very unfortunate, what is going on. Republicans, go out and vote!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 26, 2018
The United States has been spending Billions of Dollars a year on Illegal Immigration. This will not continue. Democrats must give us the votes to pass strong (but fair) laws. If not, we will be forced to play a much tougher hand.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 26, 2018
In reference to his follower count, one site that tracks followers ― Twitter Counter ― indicated that Trump’s follower count remained stagnant the last four days. However, another site, Socialbakers, shows Trump’s followers have declined slightly in that period.
As reporter Aaron Blake put it, “Internet metrics can be dodgy and inconsistent.”
Additionally, all this points back to Twitter’s ongoing efforts to purge its site of fake and inactive accounts. The platform said in June that it was going to start making new users confirm phone numbers and emails as well as auditing existing users.
In July many users saw those efforts overnight when accounts lost hundreds and thousands of followers ― some even millions ― as bots were eliminated. Aly Pavela, a Twitter spokeswoman, told The New York Times that the “work of eliminating the accounts from users’ follower counts would continue over the coming days.”
The Times noted that Trump lost about 340,000 followers in the Twitter purge then, knocking him down to 53 million from 53.4 million. Twitter did not specify what, if anything, is affecting his account this week, but a spokesperson told HuffPost:
“Our focus is on the health of the service, and that includes work to remove fake accounts to prevent malicious behavior. Many prominent accounts have seen follower counts drop, but the result is higher confidence that the followers they have are real, engaged people.”
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This article originally appeared on HuffPost.