A group of internet and social media experts have officially cracked the code on Donald Trump and when he’s the one sending out his tweets. The research was done after those on the web started talking about a pattern emerging in the Republican presidential candidate’s social media habits.
It turns out to crack the code on Trump’s tweets meant figuring out if it was true that posts from an Android device were his, while posts from other devices were from campaign staff. David Robinson, a data scientist who works for Stack Overflow, wanted to see if the popular theory was true.
#TrumpATVShow : 7 TV producers pitch titles for a Donald Trump campaign reality show https://t.co/sKb0HssjPi pic.twitter.com/S0BCp4LaDC
— The Hollywood Reporter (@THR) August 12, 2016
Slashdot reports the scientist was able to determine when Donald Trump was indeed posting and when it was someone else speaking for him. It should come as no surprise that Robinson says the angrier tweets are the ones coming directly from Trump.
To test this theory out, Robinson looked at a ton of tweets coming from Trump. The posts that got his attention include ones where “he” was wishing the Olympic team good luck from an iPhone. Another tweet had Trump attacking a rival from an Android device.
I love watching these poor, pathetic people (pundits) on television working so hard and so seriously to try and figure me out. They can’t!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 12, 2016
Of course, it was always possible Trump just had a bunch of different devices. The Republican candidate is a billionaire, so he could have more than one smart device. It’s possible he has an Android phone and an iPad or something like that.
This is likely why no one has questioned why Donald Trump sends out his tweets from a couple of very different operating systems. What likely got the attention of Robinson and others was how dramatically different in tone the tweets were depending on the device.
Donald Trump says he was being sarcastic when he claimed President Obama founded ISIS https://t.co/bQV02M1cKr pic.twitter.com/uMawqROWOv
— The Hollywood Reporter (@THR) August 12, 2016
Robinson put his findings on Variance Explained , and what he found is quite interesting indeed. Not only can we see exactly when Trump is tweeting all on his own, but the research was able to find when the candidate is more active.
Robinson says Donald Trump sends out his tweets more in the morning , from his personal Samsung Galaxy. When his campaign staff is using an iPhone, the tweets tend to come in the afternoon and early evening.
This pattern makes some sense, as Trump appears to have a little more interest in his social media activity before his day has started. When he’s hitting the campaign trail and spending time with boosters and members of his party, he’s not staring at his phone.
During this period, a Trump campaign staffer is tasked with acting as though he is Donald so that his Twitter account can stay abreast of pertinent issues. The research also shows that most of the retweets, when people are sending Trump positive messages, are done by the candidate.
Will be doing @oreillyfactor tonight at 8pm. Enjoy!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 11, 2016
Now that someone has been able to crack the code on Trump and when he tweets, it only makes the candidate look that much worse. This is especially true because Robinson has said Donald Trump is the one who usually retweets comments made by people the campaign would rather he stay away from.
To some degree, this research also shows just how hard it is for the Trump campaign to keep their candidate under wraps. The campaign has attempted to sprinkle in some more light-hearted comments here and there, if for no other reason than to not have Donald’s Twitter account be nothing but vitriol.
The fascinating byproduct of this research is going to be looking at how Trump and his campaign use social media moving forward. Since researchers have been able to crack the code on Trump and his Twitter usage, it will make it harder for him and the campaign to claim Donald Trump didn’t tweet something out truly inflammatory when he did.
[Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images]
