TOI World Desk
This puts him at a 51% advantage over his political rival, President Joe Biden, who currently has 17.2 million Instagram followers.
On Truth Social, where Trump shared his experience of “felt the bullet ripping through [his] skin” shortly after the attack, his following grew by 220,000 users, rising from 7.11 million to 7.33 million followers by Friday. Similarly, his TikTok audience expanded from 7.6 million on the day of the shooting to 8.8 million by the end of the week.
The impact of the assassination attempt on Trump’s popularity is further evident in the TikTok hashtags related to him.
According to an analysis by Viralyft, a social media marketing company, the hashtag #Trump gained 668 million views within a week of the incident, while #DonaldTrump and #Trump2024 were used 282 million and 157 million times, respectively.
Interestingly, the analysis also revealed a remarkable 500% increase in nationwide Google searches for “How to register to vote” within three days of the shooting.
Thomas Moore, the director of Viralyft, attributes the boost in Trump’s social media following to the extensive news coverage surrounding the event and the emotional connection it has forged with many of his supporters across the internet.