Whom does Republican presidential nominee Trump turn to for advice and where does he get his ideas? The candidate has not answered these questions. Asked where he gets military ideas — such as to capture all the oil in Iraq — he had responded once: “Well, I watch the shows.”
A 2011 report says that in an interview to Xinhua, the Republican candidate reeled off a list of 20 books on China that he has read over the years.
However, if the list of people that Mr. Trump follows on twitter is any indication, Mr. Trump has built an echo chamber to live in. Mr. Trump’s intellectual world appears to be a cocoon, quarantined from any possible contamination to his ideas.
Mr. Trump has 9.9 million followers on twitter and is likely to cross the ten million mark during the campaign. But he follows only 42 people. Of these 42, only one is a politician – his running mate Mike Pence. Democrat or Republican, Mr. Trump does not follow anyone else from the political or policy world.
Twenty-two of the 42 twitter handles that the Republican candidate follows are of his family, companies and campaign. Six are his immediate family members — wife Melania, sons Donald and Eric, daughter Ivanka, and daughters-in-law Vanessa and Lara. Twelve are Trump properties — hotels, gold clubs etc, such as Trump LA and Trump New York. Four are of his own campaign and associated individuals.
The family members tweet about and retweet each other. Vanessa Trump, wife of Donald Trump Jr and a former designer, retweets her husband dutifully. Occasionally when she tweets, it is stuff like “Congrats to my amazing father in law @realDonaldTrump on the republican nomination! We all love you incredibly.”
Son Eric Trump’s last tweet on a topic other than a Trump was on July 22 – “It was inspiring spending the morning with some amazing students from my alma mater.” And on July 14, on Trump dogs. “Looks like I have permanently lost my spot on the couch to #CharlieDog and Ben,” he captioned the pictures of his two pets, one a recent addition. With the hash-tag dogsforTrump.
Among the random other people that the presidential nominee follows are Katrina Campins, who describes herself as a “real estate Moghul.” The Daily Beast described her as an unusual surrogate, given that she has her topless photograph online. The 27-year old was a participant in the first episode of Apprentice — the reality show hosted by Mr. Trump in which the winner gets to lead a Trump company. Ms. Campins was the first one to be fired, but she kept in touch with Mr. Trump and is now his surrogate speaker.
Last Wednesday she tweeted a photograph of herself with Fox News anchor Sean Hannity who interviewed her on Mr. Trump and the Republican National Convention. Mr. Hannity happens to be another one of the 42 people whose views matter to Mr. Trump on twitter. Mr. Hannity has renounced any pretensions of being a journalist in this election season. “I have a diverse audience that I serve. I have been easy on all R(epublicans) as I want them to win. I will battle Hillary hard,” he declared in April on Twitter.
Mr. Trump has rarely made a speech without some caustic remarks about journalists and the media, but he follows a handful of journalists and commentators on twitter, just in case he occasionally needs some reassurance about his worldview. Seven of the 12 such are handles are Fox channels or its journalists. Mr. Trump follows prime-time anchor Bill O’ Reilly, who speaks on behalf of the candidate rather than question him during the numerous interviews that they do. At times, Mr. Trump has had to stop him from defending him.
Here is one sample from some months ago (not exact words, but to this effect)
O’Reilly: When you said that you might go after the families of terrorists many people took it literally and they targeted you. You were trying to make a point.
Trump: The family members know what these terrorists are doing. They know everything. The 9/11 hijackers told their wives what they were doing.
O’Reilly: But you did not mean to say that you would kill the family members right?
Trump: Well..yeah..I might do some nasty stuff to them.
Well, yeah, Mr. Trump follows Mr. O’Reilly on twitter.
Trump also follows two African American comedians who go by the names ‘Diamond and Silk.’ They also make stage and TV appearances for his campaign.
Trump also follows Drudge Report, the conservative news aggregation website; Ann Coulter, conservative columnist and commentator, who in her latest interview called Trump rival Ted Cruz a “little bitch who can’t get over losing.” Going by her previous comments she too believes that Mexicans are rapists and Muslims should be banned from entering the U.S. Joe Scarborough, Republican Congressman turned host on MSNBC is also on Mr. Trump’s list of 42.
