Donald Trump promised the greatest Ask Me Anything in Reddit history.
But when the presumptive Republican nominee finally got behind the keyboard on Wednesday afternoon, the questions were so bland—and so heavily moderated— that even the most dedicated Reddit Donald fans were left wondering what happened.
Answering a total of only 12 actual questions out of hundreds submitted by denizens of the Donald-loving subreddit, /r/The_Donald, Trump seemed to lack the enthusiasm he demonstrates in other areas of social media. He sometimes missed the point of the questions altogether, almost like he’d been replaced by a Donald-esque robot (or an intern).
But Trump’s lackluster performance was only one small part of the AMA’s failure.
Ahead of his appearance, moderators for /r/The_Donald created a literal “safe space” for the New York real-estate mogul and his team. They “temporarily increased security measures,” forcing any participant with a question to have at least 500 combined Reddit karma (some accounts could circumvent the requirement by proving they were verified on Twitter, of that they were loyal to the Donald on other social media platforms).
The Donald Trump Reddit, bastion of fighting political correctness, is a literal safe space. Can't make it up. pic.twitter.com/gwmuV85oyx
— Justin Green (@JGreenDC) July 27, 2016
Trump's AMA is not like most AMAs. Pro-Trump mods are screening q's, only allowing established supporters to participate.
— Benjy Sarlin (@BenjySarlin) July 27, 2016
How is Trump supposed to do an AMA without being racist, anti-Semitic or being able to troll. #TrumpAMA pic.twitter.com/mqSSDsEQ5G
— Ashley (@oohgoodness) July 27, 2016
When participants who didn’t meet that criteria managed to sneak in, the mods were quick to seek and destroy, eliminating problematic questions—and muzzling problematic users.
Trump AMA going well so far. https://t.co/FFHaqnFyVD pic.twitter.com/iXPtgF174U
— Adam Steinbaugh (@adamsteinbaugh) July 27, 2016
I asked Trump why he won't release his tax returns if he's rich and doesn't have ties to the Russians. Reddit deleted it within 15 minutes.
— Olivia Nuzzi (@Olivianuzzi) July 27, 2016
I asked @realDonaldTrump on his AMA why he wont share his tax returns…
I got immediately banned. pic.twitter.com/LhmDKNvFzj
— Patrick (@Thegetawayplan9) July 27, 2016
Moderators claimed to POLITICO that they were overly meticulous because they’d heard rumblings of a hostile takeover: “The left wing subreddits were openly planning to crash the AMA…We took steps to make sure that the AMA was not disrupted.”
But if they intended to keep up a friendly conversation, they were overly careful. Even Milo Yiannopoulos, a huge Trump fan, appeared to get caught in the dragnet.
https://twitter.com/adrjeffries/status/758442670645714944
Moderators reportedly banned 2,200 separate accounts from the AMA. Viewers and Reddit users were left with scintillating exchanges like this:
.@realDonaldTrump on whether or not he gets tired of winning. #TrumpAMA pic.twitter.com/MWqa7zRqQu
— Official Team Trump (@TeamTrump) July 28, 2016
It’s no wonder, then, that interest in the AMA steeply declined shortly after it began. The AMA itself fell quickly in the /r/all rankings, which list all of Reddit’s top news stories and events. Mods of the subreddit blamed the plunging interest on an internal Reddit conspiracy, rather than the rather dismal AMA itself. Ironically, the mods complained that Reddit was practicing censorship.
Reddit actually claimed it tried to help /r/The_Donald keep the AMA on the front page (though not being Trump fans to begin with, their explanation should be taken with a grain of salt).
Trump didn’t help himself, of course, by selecting a friendly outlet to host his Ask Me Anything. AMAs are typically held by the /r/IAmA subreddit, which has significant visibility within Reddit and where moderators are experienced with handling controversial guests.
But the campaign chose as its venue for the Q&A what amounts to Reddit’s safest space for Donald Trump: a subreddit of only Trump supporters. They ensured that the billionaire who claims to love confronting his critics and “winning” against them, was given a friendly forum, with only friendly questions, asked by only friendly accounts, known to already be Trump supporters.
And unfortunately for the Trump campaign, their “safe space” approach to Reddit seemed to draw more criticism than converts.
85 minutes, 10 answers. This #TrumpAMA isn't going well. He clearly doesn't understand the medium and neither does his team. #Election2016
— Doctor Nov (@ChrisNovembrino) July 28, 2016
https://twitter.com/dwilc/status/758451007324098561
From Trump’s point of view—and that of his supporters—the AMA was a fantastic success. The objective was to get in touch with millennial supporters, and certainly Trump was able to do that, even if they were only the ones allowed on the page.
