US President Donald Trump has joined streaming service Twitch as part of his re-election strategy in the midst of the 2020 presidential campaign.
Trump’s first verified stream went live last night from his campaign rally in Minneapolis, as the US President added another internet outlet to reach voters.
There’s also a button further down his Twitch page that encourages supporters to donate to his campaign.
Social media users had a quick response to Trump’s move to embrace a new internet platform for reaching a broader audience, as some noted with sarcasm that the platform is chiefly used for live game streaming:
Others mentioned the fact that White House candidate Senator Bernie Sanders was already ahead of Trump and using the platform:
While some were puzzled at Trump’s decision to join a platform owned by Amazon:
Some netizens saw nothing odd in Trump’s move:
Trump is hardly the first political candidate to use Twitch, which is primarily used for live video game streams, in a bid to connect with voters, as White House presidential contender Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), for instance, is also using the service.
Trump, however, has a complicated history with the company’s owner, Amazon, and its CEO, Jeff Bezos. Amazon bought the streaming company in 2014, and has been involved in the business ever since.
Trump and Bezos have racked up quite a history of clashes on Twitter.
Back when he was running for president in 2016, Donald Trump called out Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos’ ownership of The Washington Post, lambasting the purchase as an opportunity for Amazon to generate positive coverage.
A holding company started by Bezos called Nash Holdings bought the Post in 2013 and Trump argued that Bezos, who owns both Amazon and Nash Holdings, bought The Post so that “Amazon will benefit from it.”
In December 2015, then-Republican presidential candidate Trump tweeted:
“If I become president, oh do they have problems,” Trump later said at a Texas event in February 2016.
Bezos responded on Twitter with a brief sarcastic comment that referenced his space flight company Blue Origin:
In more recent developments, this August, Trump via the White House ordered the Department of Defense to look into a $10 billion contract regarding cloud computing “because of concerns that the deal would go to Amazon,” according to The Post.
Despite his history with Amazon and Jeff Bezos, though, it’s a sign of these 2020 campaign times that every platform should be made ample use of in a drive to reach out to voters.