Pew: More Twitter Users Follow Obama Than Trump

President Donald Trump has complained recently that folks are having a hard time following him on Twitter, but a new Pew Research survey found that about one in five adult Twitter users are doing so.

Pew estimates that about 19% of adult Twitter users follow the President's personal account @realDonaldTrump, which the White House has said comprise official POTUS statements.

The current President is trumped by the former one. The study found that 26% of adult Twitter users follow former President Barack Obama (@BarackObama).

But President Trump's tweets echo beyond the Twitter pond in which they are thrown, amplified by retweets and extensive media coverage of his tweets

Trailing far behind is former President Bill Clinton, followed by 6% of adult Twitter users. President George W. Bush does not have a public personal Twitter account and Jimmy Carter has no personal Twitter account, according to Pew.

The study was based on a nationally representative sample of 2,388 U.S. adults and who they followed between December 2018 and July 2019. It is based on the 87% of those who have public accounts, which are the ones for which Pew could independently verify who they follow rather than have to rely on their say so.

It is well to remember than most people don't Tweet. only 22% of U.S. adults say they use the platform and on average fewer than one in 10 follow either Obama or Trump. 

John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.