Trump Suddenly Loses 220,000 Twitter Followers—First Big Drop In 5 Years

Topline

After losing to Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election last month, Donald Trump has been losing Twitter followers at an unprecedented rate for him, with more than 220,000 accounts unfollowing the sitting president over the past two-and-a-half weeks, a notable drop for a man whose leadership style has relied heavily — and controversially — on a near-constant Tweet storm.

A woman holds a book of compiled tweets of President Donald Trump prior to a campaign rally for … [+] President Donald Trump at the BOK Center on June 20, 2020 in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Trump is scheduled to hold his first political rally since the start of the coronavirus pandemic at the BOK Center on Saturday while infection rates in the state of Oklahoma continue to rise. (Photo by Michael B. Thomas/Getty Images)

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Key Facts

According to Factba.se, a site that uses automation software and archived screenshots to measure Trump’s Twitter activity and follower count, the president hit an all-time peak follower count of 88,964,791 on Nov. 17.

Dating back to November 18th, Trump’s verified account has tallied 18 consecutive days of net losses in terms of followers.

This represents the first time in the five years since he announced he was running for president that Trump has consistently seen his follower count dip dramatically.

Prior to mid-November, the president had never experienced a net loss of followers in more than two consecutive days.

Key Background:

Trump has used social media unlike any other politician — both in engaging directly with supporters and, much more controversially, regularly spreading disinformation. Regardless, it has been central to his leadership style, announcing big news (including when people have been fired) first through his account. Although President-elect Joe Biden is nowhere near Trump in terms of total followers, his follower count has been rapidly trending upward. Since Election Day on November 3rd, Biden has seen his number of followers increase by more than 40%, from 11.8 million to 20.6 million. He’s gained more than 1.5 million new followers in the same 18-day span Trump has lost 220,000 followers. Both are dwarfed by former President Barack Obama, whose following tops 125 million.

Tangent:

A Twitter spokesperson told Forbes on Thursday that Trump could eventually be banned from their platform. The president is currently protected by Twitter’s “World Leaders policy,” which means that although the social media company will slap warning labels and fact checks on the president’s posts, they will not suspend his account. However, come January 20th, Trump will be forced to follow the same guidelines as regular citizens or risk banishment.

Big Number:

97. Over the past two weeks, President Trump has not tweeted once about the coronavirus pandemic in the U.S. (despite the fact that Covid-19 has killed more than 23,000 Americans during this time period), yet has tweeted about election fraud 97 times.