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>A lot of the users who X need to stay on the platform, journalists and politicians, are still there Twitter/X is the reason DJT became President. It happened

>A lot of the users who X need to stay on the platform, journalists and politicians, are still there Twitter/X is the reason DJT became President. It happened accidentally (ie against the wishes of Twitter management) in 2016, they successfully suppressed him in 2020, and then Elon gave MAGA that platform in 2024, leading to DJT's successful election. As long as X is seen a kingmaker, someone will find it profitable to own/maintain, even if it doesn't convert Ads like Meta/Google.

mvdtnz 1y ago
If you think twitter made even 1% difference in 2016 I urge you to go and touch some grass. This stuff doesn't matter.
- aaronax 1y ago
  Way more likely that it was /r/the_donald. In my humble, biased opinion--since I was around there but never really active on Twitter.
  - JSteph22 1y ago
    But Trump won more convincingly in 2024 without it? That doesn't support your argument.
    - lesuorac 1y ago
      Trump won by <1% in an election against a candidate who lost her only attempt at a primary and during a time period where western incumbents saw a 10+% drop due to their handling of covid inflation. 2024 isn't a story of how Trump outwitted his opponents but one of how his opponents tied their shoelaces together.
      - lynx97 1y ago
        That is so true, and needs to be repeated more. DJT didn't win because he was so great. DJT won because the DMC candidate was so hilariously bad.
  - raydev 1y ago
    There weren't a lot of 50+ year old folks on Reddit in 2016. Now there are, but that's because they've aged into that range.
- ahmeneeroe-v2 1y ago
  DJT's use of Twitter in 2016 allowed him to operate within his opponents' OODA loops. DJT and his supporters could craft narratives directly, rather than going through traditional media. DJT's information flow: DJT -> Twitter-based Supporters -> News Orgs -> Electorate Other Candidate's info flows: Candidate -> News Orgs -> Electorate So not only could DJT move faster, but he also didn't need permission/buy-in from Editors/Owners of news orgs.
- HDThoreaun 1y ago
  Trumps ability to control the narrative is pretty much wholly based on his tweeting skills. He is legitimately a top tier tweeter up there with @dril and the likes. It is incredibly entertaining and end of the day that’s what politics is about now.
  - amitrip 1y ago
    [dead]
petersellers 1y ago
> Twitter/X is the reason DJT became President. I really don't think so, at least not in isolation. It probably contributed a small part but the right wing media machine is multi-faceted. There were a lot of podcasters (i.e. Joe Rogan), comedians and youtubers all publicly in support of a second DJT presidency and I think that had a much bigger factor overall than Twitter.
- throwaway48476 1y ago
  The media gets their news from Twitter and Twitter drives the questions the media asks. It's indirectly a bigger factor than you give it credit for.
  - sillyfluke 1y ago
    To be fair, as I understand it they're saying the podcasters were most likely the ones that pushed him over the edge this time around. "Small part" meaning 10-15 percent is not too bad for twitter. And I do think rightwing podcasters and tiktok got the young male votes out more than twitter did this time around. I also doubt hispanics and other minorities voted for Trump because they were obsessively on twitter. Not being able to make ends meet, a weekend at Bernie's president, and the over-the-top blank check given to Israel played more of a role than Elon buying twitter.
    - SonOfLilit 1y ago
      Did any Trump voters think he will be harder on Israel than Biden or Kamala? In Israel the debate was "should we be rooting for Trump because of how much of a blank check he will give our government, or against him because of the damage he will do to the free world that we are part of and also the blank check that he will give our government?" Since this prediction turned out basically correct, I wonder if across the seas people had different expectations?
      - guappa 1y ago
        Did Kamala ever say anything at all against what israel is doing?
BeetleB 1y ago
This is far more nuanced (and disputed) than you make it out to be. > It happened accidentally (ie against the wishes of Twitter management) in 2016 I think the whole Cambridge Analytica fiasco played a bigger role, and I don't think they utilize Twitter. On top of that, frankly, TV and his behavior at rallies/debated helped him a lot more than Twitter did in 2016. I don't know a single MAGA supporter who was even on Twitter in 2016. > they successfully suppressed him in 2020 How? He was banned after the election. > and then Elon gave MAGA that platform in 2024, leading to DJT's successful election. DJT was not on Twitter in 2024. Did it really make a difference when he had his own social network? We all have our opinions, but is there actual data supporting this for the 2024 election?
- throwpoaster 1y ago
  > How? He was banned after the election. By suppressing the Hunter Biden laptop story before the election.
  - BeetleB 1y ago
    It's a stretch to say this would have made a major impact. Biden won fairly comfortably. COVID was Trump's bad luck.
    - wredcoll 1y ago
      Bad luck? Covid was the definition of an easy layup. It's like bush and 9/11, should be a trivial re-election.
      - Lu2025 1y ago
        > Covid was the definition of an easy layup. It's like bush and 9/11 Anything but. Trump could have won in 2020 if not for Covid. A lot of turnout was anti-Trump protest vote.
        sleepybrett 1y ago
camgunz 1y ago
This is maybe true for 2016. In 2020 and 2024 Trump/Biden/Harris were just part of larger trends that saw Western incumbents worldwide lose their seats. As a thought experiment, do you think X would have made the difference if Nikki Haley or Ron DeSantis were the GOP nominee? I would bet either people think X couldn't have helped enough (candidates didn't have the rizz) and ultimately they'd have lost, or they wouldn't be as toxic as Trump and wouldn't need whatever theoretical help X would provide. Or if you like stats, Harris broadly lost on all social media platforms [0]. Years ago now I predicted Musk would burn through Twitter's attention capital and it'd become less and less relevant over time. I think that's happening: all the stats I can look up show declining users, usage, and revenue. A lot of people use X as "write only" now, or have very sporadic interactive use. Another way of saying this is Musk bought the peak, and is running this new Nazi-friendly version as a short position against American democracy. The only way he gains attentional or financial capital from that position is if something even more illiberal happens to society and this far-right version of X is suddenly as relevant as center-left Twitter was in 2016, like Nick Fuentes becomes president or something. [0]: https://navigatorresearch.org/2024-post-election-survey-a-majority-of-new-trump-voters-used-social-media-as-main-news-source/ https://navigatorresearch.org/2024-post-election-survey-a-ma...

mvdtnz 1y ago

If you think twitter made even 1% difference in 2016 I urge you to go and touch some grass. This stuff doesn't matter.

aaronax 1y ago
Way more likely that it was /r/the_donald. In my humble, biased opinion--since I was around there but never really active on Twitter.
- JSteph22 1y ago
  But Trump won more convincingly in 2024 without it? That doesn't support your argument.
  - lesuorac 1y ago
    Trump won by <1% in an election against a candidate who lost her only attempt at a primary and during a time period where western incumbents saw a 10+% drop due to their handling of covid inflation. 2024 isn't a story of how Trump outwitted his opponents but one of how his opponents tied their shoelaces together.
    - lynx97 1y ago
      That is so true, and needs to be repeated more. DJT didn't win because he was so great. DJT won because the DMC candidate was so hilariously bad.
- raydev 1y ago
  There weren't a lot of 50+ year old folks on Reddit in 2016. Now there are, but that's because they've aged into that range.
ahmeneeroe-v2 1y ago
DJT's use of Twitter in 2016 allowed him to operate within his opponents' OODA loops. DJT and his supporters could craft narratives directly, rather than going through traditional media. DJT's information flow: DJT -> Twitter-based Supporters -> News Orgs -> Electorate Other Candidate's info flows: Candidate -> News Orgs -> Electorate So not only could DJT move faster, but he also didn't need permission/buy-in from Editors/Owners of news orgs.
HDThoreaun 1y ago
Trumps ability to control the narrative is pretty much wholly based on his tweeting skills. He is legitimately a top tier tweeter up there with @dril and the likes. It is incredibly entertaining and end of the day that’s what politics is about now.
- amitrip 1y ago
  [dead]

petersellers 1y ago

> Twitter/X is the reason DJT became President. I really don't think so, at least not in isolation. It probably contributed a small part but the right wing media machine is multi-faceted. There were a lot of podcasters (i.e. Joe Rogan), comedians and youtubers all publicly in support of a second DJT presidency and I think that had a much bigger factor overall than Twitter.

throwaway48476 1y ago
The media gets their news from Twitter and Twitter drives the questions the media asks. It's indirectly a bigger factor than you give it credit for.
- sillyfluke 1y ago
  To be fair, as I understand it they're saying the podcasters were most likely the ones that pushed him over the edge this time around. "Small part" meaning 10-15 percent is not too bad for twitter. And I do think rightwing podcasters and tiktok got the young male votes out more than twitter did this time around. I also doubt hispanics and other minorities voted for Trump because they were obsessively on twitter. Not being able to make ends meet, a weekend at Bernie's president, and the over-the-top blank check given to Israel played more of a role than Elon buying twitter.
  - SonOfLilit 1y ago
    Did any Trump voters think he will be harder on Israel than Biden or Kamala? In Israel the debate was "should we be rooting for Trump because of how much of a blank check he will give our government, or against him because of the damage he will do to the free world that we are part of and also the blank check that he will give our government?" Since this prediction turned out basically correct, I wonder if across the seas people had different expectations?
    - guappa 1y ago
      Did Kamala ever say anything at all against what israel is doing?

BeetleB 1y ago

This is far more nuanced (and disputed) than you make it out to be. > It happened accidentally (ie against the wishes of Twitter management) in 2016 I think the whole Cambridge Analytica fiasco played a bigger role, and I don't think they utilize Twitter. On top of that, frankly, TV and his behavior at rallies/debated helped him a lot more than Twitter did in 2016. I don't know a single MAGA supporter who was even on Twitter in 2016. > they successfully suppressed him in 2020 How? He was banned after the election. > and then Elon gave MAGA that platform in 2024, leading to DJT's successful election. DJT was not on Twitter in 2024. Did it really make a difference when he had his own social network? We all have our opinions, but is there actual data supporting this for the 2024 election?

throwpoaster 1y ago
> How? He was banned after the election. By suppressing the Hunter Biden laptop story before the election.
- BeetleB 1y ago
  It's a stretch to say this would have made a major impact. Biden won fairly comfortably. COVID was Trump's bad luck.
  - wredcoll 1y ago
    Bad luck? Covid was the definition of an easy layup. It's like bush and 9/11, should be a trivial re-election.
    - Lu2025 1y ago
      > Covid was the definition of an easy layup. It's like bush and 9/11 Anything but. Trump could have won in 2020 if not for Covid. A lot of turnout was anti-Trump protest vote.
      - sleepybrett 1y ago

camgunz 1y ago

This is maybe true for 2016. In 2020 and 2024 Trump/Biden/Harris were just part of larger trends that saw Western incumbents worldwide lose their seats. As a thought experiment, do you think X would have made the difference if Nikki Haley or Ron DeSantis were the GOP nominee? I would bet either people think X couldn't have helped enough (candidates didn't have the rizz) and ultimately they'd have lost, or they wouldn't be as toxic as Trump and wouldn't need whatever theoretical help X would provide. Or if you like stats, Harris broadly lost on all social media platforms [0]. Years ago now I predicted Musk would burn through Twitter's attention capital and it'd become less and less relevant over time. I think that's happening: all the stats I can look up show declining users, usage, and revenue. A lot of people use X as "write only" now, or have very sporadic interactive use. Another way of saying this is Musk bought the peak, and is running this new Nazi-friendly version as a short position against American democracy. The only way he gains attentional or financial capital from that position is if something even more illiberal happens to society and this far-right version of X is suddenly as relevant as center-left Twitter was in 2016, like Nick Fuentes becomes president or something. [0]: https://navigatorresearch.org/2024-post-election-survey-a-majority-of-new-trump-voters-used-social-media-as-main-news-source/ https://navigatorresearch.org/2024-post-election-survey-a-ma...