On Saturday, September 1, actress Alyssa Milano issued a Twitter challenge to President Donald Trump.
Milano observed that despite his 54 million+ followers on Twitter, Trump rarely receives more than 20k retweets. And though Milano only has 3.32 million followers, she bet her tweet noting the large discrepancy would garner more retweets than what the President typically gets.
She stated:
“It’s super weird to me that @realDonaldTrump has 54 MILLION followers and his tweets rarely get over 20 thousand retweets.”
“He’s screaming into the wind.”
“I bet this tweet gets more RT’s.”
It’s super weird to me that @realDonaldTrump has 54 MILLION followers and his tweets rarely get over 20 thousand retweets.
He’s screaming into the wind.
I bet this tweet gets more RT’s.
— Alyssa Milano (@Alyssa_Milano) September 2, 2018
She turned out to be very right!
As of Monday, September 3, the tweet had 81,160 retweets, despite Milano’s Twitter followers making up only a fraction of Trump’s followers. That fraction is 6% for those wondering.
And while 20,000 is just the average number of retweets for the President, some of his posts exceed 40,000.
Like his latest post of “MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!” intended to inspire his supporters. It received 42,588 retweets. What’s the big deal? That’s only 0.08% of his Twitter followers. Milano got a retweet from 2.4% of her followers.
MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 1, 2018
Milano’s followers likely either enjoy who acting or hosting work or support the same causes she does on Twitter. Trump’s Twitter followers may have other motives.
I follow Trump just so I can keep tabs on my enemy, while reading his strange and embarrassing rants.
— Cory Losenicky (@calosenicky) September 2, 2018
A look at some of Trump’s tweets show how his average message performs:
It seems Trump truly is “screaming into the wind.”
There's a high percentage of Russian bots following him, I'm sure.
— Laura Costa (@lauracosta_13) September 2, 2018
New data recently revealed that as many as 15 million of President Trump’s followers are likely bots and only about 8% of his real followers read about his tweets directly from Twitter.
My guess is Trump’s account followers include every one of the 35 million twitter users who despise him yet need to see what the hell’s he doing now; another 15 mill are bots, so he probably has 4 mill followers
— RiverJordan (@riverjordan19) September 3, 2018
Ive noticed that Trump's support on Twitter in terms of RT and likes has been dropping. Plus those who came after me criticizing him tend to be bots with 30 or less followers. This isn't a scientific study of course but it seems like the intensity fo support for Trump is falling
— (((DeanObeidallah))) (@DeanObeidallah) August 29, 2018
Milano has spoken out against Trump and his administration’s platform many times since the President took office.
Most recently, she’s commented on her belief that the media hasn’t done enough to stand up to Trump’s wild rhetoric and the negative views surrounding Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.
Alyssa Milano: Media has normalized Trump https://t.co/TbACfGmuxe pic.twitter.com/hJg7xgwYq9
— The Hill (@thehill) August 30, 2018
We know who Kavanaugh is because time and time again he’s shown us.
We need the @SenateDems to do everything they can to stop him.
Kavanaugh was hand picked by the Federalist Society to further an agenda based on hurtful, UnAmerican, ideology. pic.twitter.com/XkWYRUjUVv
— Alyssa Milano (@Alyssa_Milano) August 29, 2018
In the meantime, many on Twitter were glad to see Milano take gold in her retweet battle!
Trump's army of bots sends its regards.
However, it does not appreciate being confronted.https://t.co/FVaTAVPyuJ by @rachelkrauseis.https://t.co/p2sElgBUB7 by @BorowitzReport. pic.twitter.com/NDyWcn3Bo6
— Chris Lutolf (@ChrisLutolf) September 2, 2018
Who's the Boss now? @realDonaldTrump @Alyssa_Milano thats who……
— Philby (@LuckyPhill1607) September 3, 2018
89K retweets at this time and counting! LOL!!
— Forever Logical (@ForeverLogical) September 3, 2018
Then again, perhaps it wasn’t a fair fight.
Yeah but people like you. It's not a fair comparison.
— Carl McSweeney (@cemmcs_carl) September 2, 2018
Hopefully someday, we’ll know the answer to a great American secret:
How many of Trump’s Twitter followers are real?