From Tweets to Votes: An Assessment of Twitter’s Role in Donald Trump’s 2016 Election

Abstract

This study examines how Donald Trump’s Twitter strategy contributed to his victory in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Although Trump’s Twitter activity did not directly secure him the winning votes, it played an indirect role by capturing the attention of traditional media outlets, which then amplified his political messages to a broader audience and ignited voter action. By frequently tagging media networks, journalists, and other traditional media professionals, Trump received substantially more coverage than his opponent, Hillary Clinton, the 2016 Democrat nominee, whose Twitter strategy was primarily targeting prominent politicians and elected officials. This heightened exposure proved critical to Trump’s electoral success. To support this conclusion, a survey, which generated n=132 responses, was administered. The results indicate that both partisan and independent voters rely more on traditional media for political decision-making than on Twitter content. Moreover, compared to partisans, independent voters are notably less susceptible to being influenced by Twitter in shaping their political views.