#TrumpWon hashtag surfaces on Twitter
The first presidential debate of the U.S. general election season took place on Mon, Sept. 26, 2016. Held at Hofstra University in Hempstead, New York, this debate was truly a battle of both personality and ideology.
The first question of the night was about the economy, which Hillary Clinton responded to first. Clinton detailed her economic plan, including some improvements she’d like to help implement such as equal pay for men and women, affordable child-care, and debt-free college education.
These all seemed like reasonable ideas to me. Secretary Clinton then graciously added what a pleasure it was to be sharing the stage with Donald Trump, and that it is the role of the American people watching to decide which candidate can carry the heavy burden of the presidency.
When asked the same question moments later, Trump began to blame other countries for “stealing” American jobs, but didn’t have too much to say in terms of an actual plan for the economy.
For an hour and a half, both candidates proceeded to attack, accuse, and interrupt each other. Several times during the debate, the moderator, Lester Holt, had to remind Trump that it was not his turn to speak. While all of this drama was entertaining, it couldn’t distract me from the fact that these candidates were supposed to be proving their worth to the American people.
On the one hand, Clinton came off—for the most part—as professional, well-versed, and prepared to answer the questions that came her way. Conversely, Trump seemed to be angry, argumentative, and ready to cast blame on anyone but himself.
Having formed my own conclusions of last Monday’s debate, I was interested to see what people online were thinking about who performed better.
In an article for BBC News, reporter Anthony Zurcher said, “While Mr. Trump had a strategy—and pursued it on occasion—he was often blown off course by the former secretary of state and torpedoed by his own sometimes badgering performance.”
This seemed to be the general consensus among reporters and celebrities who had taken the time to write about the debate the next day. What I was able to find in terms of articles and polls led me to believe that Clinton won the debate.
Then I logged onto Twitter…
I found this interesting as much as shocking. So to satisfy my own curiosity, I decided to scroll through some of these #TrumpWon tweets to see what was on everyone’s mind.
What I found, was that Trump seemed to have an army of Clinton-bashing soldiers at his disposal. The Twitter universe seemed to think Clinton was debating to appease her donors, whereas Trump was debating for ALL Americans.
According to many Trump supporters on Twitter, polls cannot be trusted to provide an idea of what the population is thinking.
Through further scrolling I realized that only about half of the #TrumpWon tweets truly agreed with that statement. Many of the tweets that contributed to this Twitter phenomena, were more sarcastic than supportive.
Or…
An online contradiction such as this just goes to show the power of social media. It’s hard to say how this hashtag became so popular. Was it legitimate Trump supporters expressing their views, or was it the other side, vocalizing their disdain at the fact that #TrumpWon seemed to be a legitimate thought process?
Photo courtesy of Gage Skidmore.
Why is there no mention of RAPE charges against Trump in the American Election campaign? One only has to look at Google and, having read the information about the several charges against Trump for rape, to wonder why Nothing is said about the subject. On 16th. december, he will be appearing in court in New York on a charge (Status Conference) of rape of a 13 year old girl. If he is cleared so be it – but how can a person be considered for President until it is proved that he is squeaky clean?
It’s peculiar to say the least that there is silence about this on the part of the medea and politicians.