MARCHING ORDERS

Army of Pro-Trump Twitter Bots Is Already Dunking on DeSantis: Report

The bot network has also aggressively targeted Nikki Haley and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.

A sprawling bot network on Twitter is heaping praise upon former President Donald Trump, while maligning his critics and political opponents, according to new research shared with the Associated Press. The campaign involves the usage of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of bot accounts set up in April, October, and November 2022, findings by the Israeli tech research firm Cyabra reflected. A particular target of the bots’ enmity has been Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), widely seen as Trump’s biggest threat for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination. The bots have uniformly suggested that DeSantis would do better as Trump’s running mate, Cyabra reported. Also in the firing line is Nikki Haley, the former South Carolina governor challenging Trump for the nomination, with nearly three-fourths of the negative posts about her that the firm found tracing back to dummy accounts. The accounts also went after Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, with one calling him a “traitor” for his criticism of Trump. It is unclear who or what is behind the network.