Donald Trump’s Twitter Following Might Include More Than 4 Million Bots

Just a few days into his 17-day vacation, President Trump went on one of his signature Twitter rants, which included attacks on several media outlets and a tirade against Connecticut Senator Richard Blumenthal. But funnily enough, it’s a seemingly innocuous retweet of his from over the weekend that’s captured our attention.

On Saturday night, Trump used Twitter to thank a supporter named Nicole Mincey (aka @protrump45), a self-described “black conservative” who sells Trump merchandise. Back in June, the conservative website the Daily Caller ran a profile of the ardent Trump fan, describing her as someone who “grew up in poverty” and who was inspired to vote for Trump after she realized Obama “did not do a good job for African Americans.” The Daily Caller also said that “she has demonstrated extreme bravery for being a voice of black conservatism,” and that she was “a beautiful representation of black Republicans and overall minority conservatives.” There’s just one small problem: Nicole Mincey doesn’t actually exist.

Curious citizens embarked on an investigation and found that Nicole Mincey is, in reality, a young college student in New Jersey whose name, address, and image have been used to create a pro-Trump bot account on Twitter. Heavy.com got in touch with the real “Nicole Mincey,” who says her identity was stolen in order to sell Trump products (and to flatter the president on social media). Not only was Mincey’s name used to create a fake Twitter account, but it was also stolen to start a Trump merchandise store (where she’s listed as the main point of contact), and a GoFundMe account for “Young Black Republicans,” which no longer exists.

After Trump’s high-profile retweet of Mincey’s post led to the unmasking of @protrump45, the name and profile image on the fake account were briefly updated to something else entirely, until Twitter suspended the account altogether—standard procedure for outed bot accounts. As of this morning, Trump has yet to take down his retweet.

Sadly, Nicole Mincey isn’t the only Trump bot out there pushing pro-Trump propaganda and merch. Over the weekend, several Twitter users pointed out a number of fake accounts that have all been using photos of T-shirt models in order to create fake personas online. One Trump bot account (which has also been recently suspended) pulled a photo of a “trendy Hispanic girl” (that is the actual search term) from apparel mockup site Placeit, which allows users to promote their T-shirt designs on models. The profile photo of “Nicole Mincey” was also pulled from that site, as were a number of other fake accounts featuring photos of primarily African-American and Latino fans. (If you can’t win minority voters over, make them up!) On Sunday, Placeit condemned the use of its images for identity fraud and said it will be reporting every instance of it.

It’s impossible to tell how many Trump bots are out there, but some have made the case that there could be millions of fake accounts on Twitter. In May, Mashable reported that Trump’s rapidly growing popularity on Twitter seemed a little suspect. Ever since assuming office, Trump had added almost 7 million new followers, but over 4 million of those new accounts didn’t feature a profile picture, but rather an egg avatar, which is a usual sign of a fake account. According to Twitter Audit, only 55 percent of Trump’s Twitter followers are real accounts, meaning 15 million of his #MAGA followers are phony.

Whether Trump is aware that almost half of his Twitter base is a figment of his imagination seems unlikely. Who is behind it is another question entirely. But one thing’s for sure, Trump certainly takes pride in his questionably robust social following. Just last week, the president tweeted, “Only the Fake News Media and Trump enemies want me to stop using Social Media (110 million people).” And yet Trump only has 35.3 million Twitter followers and 23.8 Facebook followers, so where he got that overly inflated number in particular remains a mystery—perhaps Nicole Mincey gave it to him?