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Is Donald Trump a Secret Redditor?
The Atlantic ^ | May 11, 2017 | Adrienne LaFrance

Posted on 05/11/2017 5:19:18 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet

The president of the United States has long-running beef with the actress Rosie O’Donnell, and that is not even the most surreal sentence I have written today.

But this is not about me: It’s about Donald Trump and it’s about his tweet to O’Donnell at 3:55 p.m. “We finally agree on something Rosie,” says the tweet, published via Trump’s personal account, @realDonaldTrump.

Trump was referring to a December 20, 2016, tweet by O’Donnell, which said: “FIRE COMEY.”

At the time, many Hillary Clinton supporters were calling for James Comey, the now-ousted FBI director to be fired for having made public a re-examination into Clinton’s misuse of a private email server days before the presidential election. Comey’s handling of that incident was offered as justification for Trump’s decision to fire Comey this week.

In defending the move, which has created a firestorm of criticism, Trump has been reminding people that Democrats asked for him to fire Comey. Hence the O’Donnell tweet. Questions about what, exactly, the president of the United States is up to have officially reached fever pitch.

Questions like: Is Donald Trump reading Reddit?

As Brandon Wall, a reporter for BuzzFeed pointed out, Trump’s tweet to O’Donnell came shortly after O’Donnell’s December tweet was published to the Reddit forum r/ The_Donald.

(REDITT-AND-TWEET-AT-LINK)

The idea that the president of the United States is checking Reddit is maybe perplexing—doesn’t he have better things to do?—but not outlandish. After all, Trump won the meme wars before he won the presidency, as Ben Schreckinger wrote for Politico:

By the fall, a team in the war room at Trump Tower was monitoring social media trends, including The_Donald subreddit—a message board that acted as a conduit between 4Chan and the mainstream Web...” Schreckinger wrote “and privately communicating with the most active users to seed new trends, according to two former Trump campaign officials. The team would bump up anything particularly catchy to social media director Dan Scavino.

Trump’s staffers have rebuffed the idea that they keep close tabs on Reddit, but there’s plenty of evidence that Trump—a voracious media consumer with a reputation for being obsessed with cable TV—actually does respond to media in near real time. It’s a two-way street: newscasters have responded immediately to Trump’s tweets on-air, too.

Trump is mostly a TV guy. And he’s famously computer averse—when an image of him using a computer once surfaced, it made headlines. So it’s most likely that this particular presidential Reddit-to-Twitter moment was prompted by a White House staffer. (Or, you know, it could be a coincidence. Riiight.) And though the Trump tweet was sent from an iPhone—another possible sign that a staffer sent it, versus tweets sent by Trump’s own Android phone—it’s conceivable Trump would delight in Reddit’s vibe. The_Donald forum, especially, is known for being particularly brash. Just like the president.

Reddit, for its part, has mixed feelings about all this.

“Haha what an honor, congrats man,” one user wrote on Reddit, after another user suggested a White House staffer had seen the O’Donnell tweet on Reddit. “I'm no expert but i think this pretty much makes you pals with the God Emperor himself.”

“Trump retweeted this 20 minutes after this post went up,” another commenter said. “The POTUS is a redditor and I don't know how to feel about that.”


TOPICS: Chit/Chat; Computers/Internet; Politics
KEYWORDS:
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"Culture is upstream of politics." ~Andrew Breitbart
1 posted on 05/11/2017 5:19:18 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

When did the Atlantic Ocean getting into publishing?


2 posted on 05/11/2017 5:22:26 PM PDT by Grampa Dave (en100+ days without Hilliarly/Huma as POTUS! Thanks, President Trump for this great reality!)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet; onyx
A more important question is "Is a FReeper?"

You know how many Conservatives post or lurk on this site?

I have seen FReeper posts repeated verbatim in the Mainstream Conservative news days after I saw it posted here.

3 posted on 05/11/2017 5:23:17 PM PDT by KC_Lion (Proud Keeper of the Sarah Palin and New First Lady Melania Ping Lists. Let me know if you want on.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Fake news without even trying to be news.


4 posted on 05/11/2017 5:23:31 PM PDT by Grampa Dave (en100+ days without Hilliarly/Huma as POTUS! Thanks, President Trump for this great reality!)
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To: Grampa Dave

It is a sea change, isn’t it?


5 posted on 05/11/2017 5:32:41 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet (You cannot invade the mainland US. There'd be a rifle behind every blade of grass.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
Keeping the left 'freaked out and unnerved' is a talent--Donald Trump has this talent!


6 posted on 05/11/2017 5:33:51 PM PDT by caww
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Has any of these wizards of smart asked Hillary how she feels about Comey being fired?


7 posted on 05/11/2017 5:37:02 PM PDT by Mark (Celebrities... is there anything they do not know? -Homer Simpson)
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To: caww

I’m ready for Sessions to start sledging hammers down and crushing RATS. It looks like that chapter is just now opening.

DJT gave the Left every plea, admonition, warning to keep it clean. They dove further into the gutter, and they will be interred in that gutter. Along with all the RATS they’re destroying themselves to protect.

They can’t say they weren’t warned. Way, way more warning than I’d give.


8 posted on 05/11/2017 5:38:53 PM PDT by txhurl (BOOM BOOM! - what is it - :)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

“It is a sea change, isn’t it?”

Thanks for a good laugh to go with my California red wine!


9 posted on 05/11/2017 5:45:11 PM PDT by Grampa Dave (en100+ days without Hilliarly/Huma as POTUS! Thanks, President Trump for this great reality!)
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To: KC_Lion

I suspect that President Trump has long had a staff whose purpose is to follow social media. This serves several purposes: not just to discover good ideas, but how popular they are; also to do opposition research of leftist and Democrat sites.

Each of them probably compiles a daily summary, that is reviewed by their supervisor, then somehow pipelined to selected aides in the White House.

Every day the POTUS gets all kinds of one page daily briefs. Obama often disdained them, as did President Trump at first, because they were fleshed out with “old news”. But now he’s got his own people at work, he’s getting much higher quality data.


10 posted on 05/11/2017 5:45:37 PM PDT by yefragetuwrabrumuy (Leftists aren't fascists. They are "democratic fascists", a completely different thing.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
But this is not about me: It’s about Donald Trump and it’s about his tweet to O’Donnell at 3:55 p.m. “We finally agree on something Rosie,” says the tweet, published via Trump’s personal account, @realDonaldTrump.

Trump was referring to a December 20, 2016, tweet by O’Donnell, which said: “FIRE COMEY.”


11 posted on 05/11/2017 5:48:30 PM PDT by Grampa Dave (en100+ days without Hilliarly/Huma as POTUS! Thanks, President Trump for this great reality!)
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To: Grampa Dave

Ever tried Redwood Creek wines? I worked security for their promo team at a festival several years ago.


12 posted on 05/11/2017 5:49:39 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet (You cannot invade the mainland US. There'd be a rifle behind every blade of grass.)
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To: txhurl
It's coming......but we all need to sit tight as it does and let it all fall down! Reminds me of Jericho as the Israelites went round and round the city!!
13 posted on 05/11/2017 5:50:32 PM PDT by caww
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To: caww
Excellent! Consider this stolen, er borrowed.


14 posted on 05/11/2017 5:51:32 PM PDT by Grampa Dave (en100+ days without Hilliarly/Huma as POTUS! Thanks, President Trump for this great reality!)
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To: Grampa Dave

Pepe Ridge Farms? LOL


15 posted on 05/11/2017 5:52:37 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet (You cannot invade the mainland US. There'd be a rifle behind every blade of grass.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

16 posted on 05/11/2017 5:58:33 PM PDT by Albion Wilde ("We will be one people, under one God, saluting one American flag." --Donald Trump)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
"Trump is mostly a TV guy. And he’s famously computer averse—when an image of him using a computer once surfaced, it made headlines. "


17 posted on 05/11/2017 6:05:20 PM PDT by Albion Wilde ("We will be one people, under one God, saluting one American flag." --Donald Trump)
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To: caww

The disturbance in the force has *me* disturbed. I’m starving for RAT blood to splatter the walls, ceiling, drapes and appliances but an example must be made slowly of each and every one... if for nothing else but to dissuade potential RATS from jumping up to warm their bench.

I guess we’re going to have to re-build the Dem party for them. (after we burn it to the freaking sub-slab-strata, mwuhahaha!)


18 posted on 05/11/2017 6:08:41 PM PDT by txhurl (BOOM BOOM! - what is it - :)
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To: Albion Wilde

YES!


19 posted on 05/11/2017 6:11:00 PM PDT by txhurl (BOOM BOOM! - what is it - :)
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To: Grampa Dave

No, this is real news, or at least a realistic speculation. Sounds like the Atlantic has stubbed its toe on the VRWC again. And it’s vast


20 posted on 05/11/2017 6:16:29 PM PDT by AndyJackson
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