Donald Trump’s followers appear to be deserting him on Twitter as the US president keeps up a barrage of baseless claims claiming election fraud.
In one on his latest posts, Mr Trump argued there was “no way” Joe Biden secured 80million votes, which has officially been declared the highest of any presidential candidate in history.
“Just saw the vote tabulations. There is NO WAY Biden got 80,000,000 votes!!! This was a 100% RIGGED ELECTION,” he Tweeted.
Weeks after losing the election, President Donald Trump is now losing thousands of Twitter followers by the day, according to Newsweek.
More than 46,000 of the president’s former disciples have reportedly stopped receiving his tweets since Sunday.
The president still has nearly 89 million followers, but lost 10,000 by Wednesday.
Newsweek observed that Mr Trump’s Twitter following dropped by 12,476 followers on Tuesday and by almost 6,000 more on Monday.
On Sunday, he lost 19,164 followers.
http://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1331987171700510720
According to that report, it’s possible that Twitter’s crackdown on bots – accounts not run by humans – is bringing down Mr Trump’s still massive numbers.
Mr Trump’s drop in readership coincides with a movement called “UnfollowThePres,” which encourages the public to ask Twitter to flag tweets from the president that aim to spread misinformation.
Since losing the November 3 election, Mr Trump has used Twitter to promote reports from fringe media outlets that help him construct an alternate narrative where the former reality TV star wasn’t defeated by roughly six million votes.
Numerous Mr Trump tweets declaring victory and promoting conspiracy theories have been flagged since his electoral defeat.
“RIGGED ELECTION!” he tweeted Wednesday.
That seemingly baseless outburst was accompanied by a warning label from Twitter stating, “This claim about election fraud is disputed.”
Trump can be banned from Twitter on January 20 once he is no longer a head of state. The president’s current status protects him from repercussions civilians who promote falsehoods can face.
According to The Washington Post, Mr Trump averages 50 lies or misleading claims per day.
President-elect Joe Biden’s Twitter following reportedly leapt by 130,000 followers on Wednesday, though his total Twitter audience of fewer than 19 million people pales in comparison to that of the outgoing commander-in-chief.
Former president Barack Obama has more than 126 million Twitter followers, making him that social media platform’s most popular figure.
Singers Justin Bieber and Katy Perry are the only other people on Twitter with more than 100 million followers.
