US President Donald Trump might still be in the office, but his Twitter followers are leaving him in favor of President-elect Joe Biden. However, the latest claim stating that it has happened for the first time is fake. Trump has lost a number of followers on numerous occasions much before the US Presidential elections were held.
At the time of writing this report, Trump has 88.8 million followers on Twitter. Trump's rant calling the elections rigged and subsequent victory of opponent Biden a hoax has often been flagged by the microblogging site in the absence of any credentials.
Did Trump Lose Twitter Followers for the First Time?
The visible decline in the President's followers started after the results of the US Presidential elections were declared. According to Factba.se, a website dedicated to tracking Trump's public statements, the president has lost 133,902 followers since 17 November while the president-elect has gained 1,156,610.
The glaring loss was further highlighted by CNN host and media reporter Brian Stelter who tweeted that even though Twitter followers were "surely not the most important metric in the world", it was "still worth noting: for the first time since 2015, Trump is consistently losing followers". He backed his claims by stating that Factba.se had "measured small declines for 11 days in a row."
However, what is hoax is the claim that it was for the first time that Trump's followers have deserted him on Twitter. According to Snopes, the number of followers had decreased on various occasions much before November this year. However, the daily decrease never continued for more than two days, unlike the change witnessed this month.
The hoax claim was further strengthened in a tweet where the user said that the dip in the President's follower base happened for the first time. The user even produced a chart to back his baseless claim.
Trump Lost Over 18,000 Followers In a Day After Election Results
Factbase claimed that Trump's Twitter account recorded an all-time peak follower count of 88,964,791 on November 17, following which it dropped by over 18,900 accounts the very next day. Since then, Trump has lost almost 140,000 followers on the microblogging site.
In a tweet, Factba.se wrote: "There were a number of questions about bots dropping off. We don't analyze for bot behavior... (see: https://sparktoro.com/blog/we-analyzed-every-twitter-account-following-donald-trump-61-are-bots-spam-inactive-or-propaganda/). However, we do spot patterns. Small drops daily is not normally a bot purge (e.g. -335,267 on 7/12/18) =. a band-aid pull. This behavior is persistent."
Trump's latest tweet has also met with lots of disdain from the Twitter users. "A judge in Nevada has ordered Clark County officials to allow an inspection of the elections equipment and sealed containers used in the 2020 election by 1:00 P.M. tomorrow," wrote the President. "You need serious help," replied a user instantly.
"Excuse me, Mr. President @realDonaldTrump Sir, You've LOST your Re-Election Sir, It's Time for you to CONCEDE Sir, It's Time for you to have some DIGNITY Sir, It's Time for you to GO," wrote another.
