President Donald Trump raised a few eyebrows early Monday morning after he followed CNN on Twitter. The move briefly increased his official following count from what had been a stable 45 t0 46.
If you were up early enough for it, it looked something like this.
President Donald Trump briefly followed CNN this morning pic.twitter.com/fWdK0SYF0P
— Jon Levine (@LevineJonathan) March 26, 2018
It appears as though the decision to follow the cable news network was made in error and the president moved to swiftly unfollow the account less than an hour later.
POTUS’ social media move was tracked in real time by the “Trump Alert” bot, which tracks the Twitter movements of members of the Trump family.
realDonaldTrump appears to be following @CNN. (This bot cannot tell if it was a new follow or the result of the account being reactivated.)
— Trump Alert (@TrumpsAlert) March 26, 2018
realDonaldTrump appears to no longer follow @CNN. (This bot cannot tell if this was an unfollow, suspension or block.)
— Trump Alert (@TrumpsAlert) March 26, 2018
Despite having nearly 50 million followers, the president has long maintained 45 as the number of people he would follow back (signifying the 45th president). The lucky few are a mix of Fox News personalities, Trump family members, a few close friends and official accounts for his properties.
The accidental CNN follow suggests Trump was scrolling through coverage there this morning — despite his stated antipathy for the network. The president routinely blasts CNN coverage as “fake news” and his press secretary, Sarah Sanders, has increasingly ignored the network’s White House correspondent Jim Acosta.