Silke Jasso
On Sunday, president-elect Donald Trump hit 20 million followers on Twitter. The incoming president has been using Twitter to reach out to both his fans and critics for years, but recently he’s become the most talked-about name on the social platform. In the past week alone, he’s used the app to criticize civil rights leader and Congressman John Lewis, “Saturday Night Live” and Hillary Clinton.
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Trump’s campaign manager and biggest pundit, Kellyanne Conway, recently defended her boss’ Twitter habits to left-leaning late-night host Seth Meyers. In an interview last week, Conway said that for the president-elect, Twitter is a “free way” to “communicate directly with the people.”
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/820764134857969666
In a “60 Minutes” interview, when asked about his Twitter use in the White House, the 45th president said, “I’m going to be very restrained, if I use it at all, I’m going to be very restrained.” He also praised Twitter as a “tremendous way to communicate.”
Incoming White House press secretary Sean Spicer tweeted yesterday in anticipation of Trump hitting his 20 millionth follower. Spicer has come under fire by the mainstream media after the Trump press conference when he demanded that CNN reporter Jim Acosta apologize for his “rude behavior.”
Will it be you? @realDonaldTrump about to hit 20,000,000 followers on @Twitter #maga çc @DanScavino
— Sean Spicer (@seanspicer) January 15, 2017
With his 20 millionth follower, Donald Trump is now the 68th most followed account on Twitter, according to a site that tracks the top 100 most popular accounts. That puts him between Avril Lavigne (67) and Bollywood actor Aamir Kahn (69). In comparison, Hillary Clinton is down at No. 152 with only 12 million followers.
The president-elect has a long way to go if he wants to catch outgoing president Barack Obama, who has the No. 4 spot with more than 80 million followers (Katy Perry comes in at No. 1 with 95.3 million.) Trump has blasted out just over 34k tweets in the nearly seven years that he’s been on the site (he joined in March of 2009), which is more than twice as many as Obama. And unlike the current president, Trump actually writes his own tweets (Obama’s account is managed by staffers.)
He’s had a few weird obsessions in his Twitter history, including Robert Pattinson and Rosie O’Donnell. Here are a few of the best Trump tweets that we just can’t forget.
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/258640349872926720
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/258937466155831297
We might never understand this particular obsession.
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/258966137302315009
He also likes Katy Perry (or at least he did before she campaigned for Hillary), but he hates Russel Brand.
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/522854696663265282
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/522901858126692353
And he really, really hates Huffington Post founder Arianna Huffington.
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/240462265680289792
He used his Twitter in one instance to sound off a “pervert alert.”
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/266276897305026560
