Twitter is a giant scream-fest of a social network struggling to attract new users. It also provides perhaps the best immediate insight into the thoughts and interests of the family and administration of President Donald Trump.
Sure, you can follow all those accounts for that insight, but what’s the fun in that when there’s a bot that’ll do the work for you? Say hello to @TrumpsAlert.
The account collects all the activity of the Trumps and powerful folks within the administration, such as White House adviser Kellyanne Conway.
It tweets when Donald Trump Jr. favorites something…
.. scanning the tweets of Trump World every few minutes to keep abreast of whatever’s happening.
Before you think this is barely more than silly, think about how many times Trump has already tried to issue some kind of directive with tweets, or how many times Donald Trump Jr. has interacted with someone from the far-right on Twitter.
“Given that Donald Trump appears to govern by tweet, having an understanding of his Twitter world could help us better understand the decisions that he has made and what is really going on behind the scenes in the White House,” the account’s founder, James O’Malley, said in an email.
O’Malley, a London-based journalist who is currently the interim editor of Gizmodo U.K., thinks the public can gain clues about Trump World by scrutinizing their Twitter activity, the same way United States officials used to glean information about Soviet Union officials by studying photographs.
“What I think is particularly interesting is how with Trump there are echoes of a sort-of ‘royal court’ style of government where proximity to power matters more than official roles or institutions,” O’Malley wrote. “So knowing who is in and who is out of the Trump orbit is surely particularly useful.”
