Trump’s conviction reverberates across the internet
Here’s how last night’s historic conviction of a former President spread on various social platforms
You may have already heard…but despite one of the jurors regularly getting their news from Truth Social, Donald Trump was found guilty on all 34 counts in his New York criminal trial last night. The news spread around the internet quickly, and the Trump campaign attempted to turn lemons into lemonade. Here’s what we saw:
Millions of people first found out about the guilty verdict on Instagram, where mostly straight news accounts and liberal memers were responsible for the top 10 most-engaged feed posts breaking the news (according to Crowdtangle). There is a very high likelihood that you saw at least one of these posts last night:
On TikTok, the news spread in more entertaining ways. @fallontonight published a Trumpy version of 1960’s classic Rock song “I Fought the Law”, and @madmcferrin recorded an absolute bop with this video. The most-liked post about the verdict is currently this one from @amessyvirgoo, which just features two women celebrating the news with their dog.
The news spread on Facebook much slower, with posts about the verdict receiving far less engagement than other platforms. The top-performing post on that platform came from Donald Trump’s own page - a simple graphic with the words “NEVER SURRENDER.” It only has received around 80,000 interactions as of this morning.
The Trump campaign, in response to the guilty verdict, made strategic moves to capitalize on the situation. As they have done repeatedly with big moments in the former President’s criminal career, they attempted to fundraise, sending out email blasts and launching digital ads on Twitter and Facebook.
Minutes after the verdict was announced, the Trump campaign’s WinRed donate pages and website went down, and thousands of eager donors were not able to contribute to the campaign for at least an hour. That’s a bit of a nightmare scenario for any campaign.
“If you are one of the millions of American Patriots wanting to donate to Donald Trump’s campaign and you get an error message from @WINRED …don’t give up! Log back on and try again!” tweeted Trump Campaign Manager Chris La Civita.
That critical time period probably cost the campaign some serious cash, although I fully expect them to still raise a historic amount of money in these 24 hours following the conviction. I suspect their team will announce their fundraising haul very soon.
For more on Trump’s conviction and its political ramifications, check out Dan Pfeiffer’s latest issue of Message Box, “How Trump's Conviction Could Cost Him the Election.”
Digital ad spending, by the numbers:
FWIW, political advertisers spent just over $10.7 million on Facebook and Instagram ads last week. These were the top ten spenders nationwide:
Right-wing pay-for-play content farm Metric Media spent $40k+ last week on Facebook ads targeting key swing states with anti-Biden “headlines.” Their biggest spend was in Arizona via a fake news site called The Grand Canyon Times, where they ran stories attacking Joe Biden on immigration and the border.
On the Left, a similar but less sophisticated effort by Star Spangled Media LLC is starting to take shape. The anonymous company is running headlines from a site called “The Morning Mirror” boosting Democrats running for state legislature in Michigan and Pennsylvania.
Meanwhile, political campaigns spent $4.1 million on Google and YouTube ads last week. Here were the top ten spenders nationwide:
Conservative dark money organization One Nation spent $121,000 this week on video ads attacking Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown on the issue of immigration. It’s the first major wave of digital spending from the prominent right-wing group this cycle.
On Snapchat, political advertisers in the U.S. have spent $1.7 million on ads year to date. Here are the top spenders:
League of Conservation Voters was a top spender on Snapchat this week, and to date, they’ve spent over $125,000. The environmental group is running ads touting President Biden’s climate achievements and emphasizing how crucial they are at this critical juncture. The aim of these ads is likely to energize young voters around climate and Biden at a time when they may feel less energized by other factors.
…and on X (formerly Twitter), political advertisers have spent over $3.3 million on the platform in 2024. Here are the top spending accounts:
Your 2024 digital dispatch
FWIW, here’s how weekly digital ad spending (Facebook/Instagram, Google/YouTube) compares between the Trump and Biden campaigns year-to-date:
More from around the internet:
Donald Trump Jr. joined TikTok on Wednesday, posting behind-the-scenes courthouse content in which his father is about to send a “mean tweet” and says he's proud of him for his keen social media use. The video also appears to show that Don Jr.’s diet consists of 3 boxes of candy and a family-sized bag of potato chips.
MAGA Inc, the primary Super PAC supporting Donald Trump, has created a “Content Creators War Room” to amplify tested messages, research, and specific pieces of content.
The New York Times published a story about how “tuned-out voters” could decide this election and how reaching them in a changing information environment will be the Biden campaign’s challenge.
The vibes on TikTok last week:
Note: The vibes on TikTok can shift very quickly. Please note that the below data was pulled in the hours before Trump’s conviction last night.
FWIW, here’s a look at 10 of the most-liked videos mentioning Trump on TikTok in the past week:
Once again, this week was a very polarized one for Trump on TikTok– and one that involved a lot of celebrities. A video from @reppressley condemning Trump’s Project 2025 policy agenda went pretty viral. Right behind it, however, was a video from @dailymail featuring rapper Sheff G speaking in support of Trump at his rally in the Bronx.
Meanwhile, here were some of the most-liked videos mentioning Biden in the past week:
Several videos from @msnbc of Robert DeNiro and two Capitol police officers who have spoken out about Jan 6th praising Biden and attacking Trump went mega-viral. On the other hand, videos from @aljazeeraenglish highlighted criticisms of Biden’s lack of response to the latest violence in Gaza. One video featuring the Biden admin’s John Kirby and one featuring Libertarian nominee Chase Oliver garnered a lot of attention and engagement.
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