Donald Trump got a Twitch channel, from which he’s currently livestreaming a rally in Minneapolis. This is how we live now.
As of this writing, Trump’s channel has almost 9,000 followers, and about 8,700 are watching his rally in Minnesota. The chat is moving rapidly, but there are walls of “IMPEACH,” as well as a lot of emotes. Chat doesn’t appear to be moderated, so view it at your own risk. My colleague Nathan suspects some video game streamers’ communities are spamming the chat, as evidenced by emotes of streamer Forsen’s face, but honestly, it’s hard to tell what’s going on at all, which sums up this livestream pretty well.
“That’s a lot of media,” he was saying as I tuned in, to boos in the crowd. “They are so dishonest and, frankly, they are so bad for our country, and they could be so good. Maybe they’ll change and maybe they won’t. I’ve been waiting for a long time.”
Trump isn’t the first politician to take to the streaming site. Bernie Sanders has been using Twitch to reach supporters, including during the recent Amazon boycott. Amazon owns Twitch; The Verge points out that Trump has a contentious history with the company, so it’s a bit of surprise to see him on its platform. Maybe that Fortnite vote is more potent than we think.
“Isn’t it better when I go off script?” Trump is saying now.
This will end well.