This past Tuesday evening, as the White House wound down after another tumultuous day, Counselor to the President, Kellyanne Conway was looking at Corgis on the internet.
Just after 8:30 P.M., Conway followed two corgi-related novelty Twitter accounts in rapid succession. First, it was <a href="https://twitter.com/TheCutestCorgis">TheCutestCorgis</a> (bio: "Because who doesn't love corgis?!?!") followed by OhMyCorgi, a powerhouse cute pet account with over 685,000 followers.
Normally this sort of peculiar detail might go unnoticed by even the most watchful of social media eyes. But thanks to a new Twitter bot now you, too, can keep tabs on the social media nuances of the Trump family and certain members of the White House as well.
The bot — @TrumpsAlert — claims to track “Trump family follow and unfollows” with the aim of trying to “figure out what is going on inside the White House.” It was created by James O'Malley, a freelance writer currently serving as GizmodoUK's editor. O'Malley got the idea after seeing a tweet claiming Donald Trump had unfollowed Kellyanne Conway, which triggered a rash of speculation about trouble in the West Wing.
“It reminded me of how North Korea is tracked by the west – by observing photos and messages coming from state television, analysts try to figure out who is in and out of favor,” O'Malley told BuzzFeed News over Twitter. “Given that the Trump Administration is essentially the same thing – Royal Court politics – I figured that watching the inner circle’s Twitter accounts could help us understand the Kremlinology of what is going on in the White House.”
While @TrumpsAlert probably won't generate any stunning revelations, the account does offer an interesting glimpse into the social media lives of Trump and those in his orbit.
For example, here the bot shows us Eric Trump’s July 1 dive down an MMA and professional boxing rabbit hole:
Or, when Don Jr. followed fellow Seth Rich conspiracy tweeter Kim Dotcom (who faces potential extradition to the U.S. for copyright infringement and money laundering charges).
In general, the bot does an excellent job chronicling Don Jr.’s beefed up conservative media Twitter list (which may have had something to do with a noticeable uptick in his tweeting in defense of his father).
The bot also catches some great Twitter beef that might have fallen off the radar. Including Don Jr. unfollowing comedian Natasha Leggero after she tweeted mocking a photo President Trump and Ivanka.
Here’s Leggero’s tweet:
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