Donald Trump has shaken up the conventional wisdom about electoral tactics in his scorched-earth march to become the GOP’s presidential nominee.
Perhaps most baffling to the political establishment is his mastery as a Twitter troll. His tweets are rude, rarely if ever fact-checked, and crafted to dominate news cycles by courting mass outrage. One by one, his Republican rivals were slain by this slimy social media strategy.
But Trump isn’t fighting fellow conservatives anymore. Now he’s up against Hillary Clinton and the entire Democratic machine. Which means that if he’s going to post a half-assed attack tweet like this…
Obama just endorsed Crooked Hillary. He wants four more years of Obama—but nobody else does!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 9, 2016
…he’s gonna get hit with Twitter’s favorite, most brutal reply.
Delete your account. https://t.co/Oa92sncRQY
— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) June 9, 2016
In less than 20 minutes, this ice-cold clapback has been retweeted 35,000 times—more than seven times the traction Trump’s tweet got and more than five times the amount of retweets Hillary’s initial announcement of Obama‘s endorsement garnered. The response was overwhelming.
I CANT BREATHEEEEEEEEE
— Matt (@canuckfuckboy) June 9, 2016
.@HillaryClinton @realDonaldTrump pic.twitter.com/438ibty5jO
— Greg Greene (@ggreeneva) June 9, 2016
https://twitter.com/MikeIsaac/status/740977717093367809
https://twitter.com/theyearofelan/status/740975081921216512
https://twitter.com/gabebergado/status/740978084367720448
She's gone full internet…!
— Lesley Carhart (@hacks4pancakes) June 9, 2016
This tweet. pic.twitter.com/0HaCDfE6rf
— Erica Pishdadian (@ericapishdadian) June 9, 2016
Meanwhile, people not as attuned to the vernacular of this particular platform seemed to believe that Hillary might have been hacked or made the suggestion with the earnest expectation of a possible deletion.
This "delete" suggestion is not likely to happen…but makes for interesting social media reading! https://t.co/SHTyEDS4Po
— Thomas Roberts (@ThomasARoberts) June 9, 2016
In a tweet sent by staff, Clinton campaign tells Donald Trump to delete his Twitter account pic.twitter.com/4DRY6rJMCU
— ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) June 9, 2016
Please tell me Hillary Clinton hasn't been hacked, because her telling Trump to delete his account is hilarious😂😂😂
— Yasmina (@yassiesokoye86) June 9, 2016
https://twitter.com/hoIiestmadonna/status/740977123490308096
The Clinton campaign has been dragged in the past for pandering to millennials and minority groups in her quest for the White House, and it’s true that she’s stumbled a bit in efforts to speak the internet’s language. But in this case, some communications staffer deserves a raise.
Update 4:11pm CT, June 9: After a long two hours, Trump managed to fire back at Hillary with a clearly crowdsourced dig.
How long did it take your staff of 823 people to think that up–and where are your 33,000 emails that you deleted? https://t.co/gECLNtQizQ
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 9, 2016
The answers to those questions would be: “literally five minutes” and “deleted.”
It took 5 minutes. Look at the time stamp you fucking buffoon.
— Greg Bennett (@GreggyBennett) June 9, 2016
Honestly, do we even need debates? I think we can settle this online.