Tens of millions of Americans tuned in to watch the debate between Republican Donald Trump and Democratic nominee Kamala Harris on TV on Tuesday. But with them, a secondary battle played out on social media’s smaller screens.
From the opening moment of the debate, Democrats seized on Harris’ walk across the stage to shake Trump’s hand and introduce herself, posting videos and photos.
“Kamala said you’re gonna shake my hand dammit!” social media user Adam James Smith posted on X, to over 68,000 likes.
Part of Vice President Harris’ debate plan was to goad Trump into saying things that could become viral social media clips. The debate suggested that this strategy paid off. However, Trump’s campaign and online supporters quickly declared victory after the debate was over. They were claiming a win for the Republican former president.
Trump’s False Claims
Harris’ expressions as Trump cycled through falsehoods were quickly turned into memes. Trump’s repetition of a false claim that Haitian migrants in Ohio were eating pet dogs and cats, though, probably inspired the most reaction.
“THEY’RE EATING THE DOGS,” quickly trended on social media platform X. It was buoyed by thousands of posts – including many confused at the quote’s relevance in a presidential debate.
As the debate ended, Harris scored the ultimate online victory. “Like many of you, I watched the debate tonight,” Taylor Swift said on Tuesday to her over 280 million Instagram followers. “I’m voting for @kamalaharris because she fights for the rights and causes I believe need a warrior to champion them.”
The post already had over 4.3 million “likes” on Instagram as of late Tuesday, two hours after it was posted.
Social Media Campaigns
Social media is playing an even more significant role in this year’s election cycle than it has in the past, political strategists say. Both the Democratic and Republican parties have drafted content creators, or influencers, to push information on their party’s policies and their candidates.
“(Social media) both is what people think and shapes what people think,” said Shannon McGregor, an associate professor at the University of North Carolina said.
Overall, Trump far outperforms Harris and her campaign on followers. The Harris campaign’s official Kamala HQ account has 1.3 million followers on X. The Trump campaign has around 2.4 million followers. However, Harris’ campaign has received over 100 million “likes” on its videos on TikTok versus Trump’s 44 million.
Trump Declares ‘Big win’
Trump’s campaign and his supporters jumped on his response as he discussed Harris’ economic plan. They called it simplistic and a copy of her boss President Joe Biden’s agenda.
“Run, Spot, run,” Trump said, in reference to a popular book series used to teach children to read. The term was quickly trending on X.
Harris put Trump on the defensive Tuesday with a stream of attacks on abortion limits, his fitness for office and his myriad legal woes, analysts said. But the Trump campaign, and Trump himself, quickly declared victory on social media after it was over.
“People are saying big win tonight,” Trump declared on his Facebook account. That post had nearly 30,000 likes. He also appeared before reporters and said the moderators were “unfair” to him.
The Harris campaign also declared debate victory in a statement Tuesday night.
(with inputs from Reuters)
