The presidential campaign of Vice President Kamala Harris in July seized the reins of an account on Donald Trump‘s Truth Social platform—and Newsweek has taken a deep dive into its development.
While social media has become commonplace in politics, this is the first election cycle where a candidate has his own platform. Trump started Truth Social in February 2022, after he was banned from major platforms such as Facebook and X (Twitter at the time) following the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol the year before.
President Joe Biden‘s campaign opened an account on Truth Social in October 2023 but this was seemingly rebranded as HarrisHQ in July this year, after Biden dropped out of the race and endorsed Harris as the Democratic candidate.
On July 23, Truth Social’s own account posted: “A new candidate calls for a new handle. Please welcome @KamalaHQ to #TruthSocial.”
The average Truth Social user is likely to be a male Republican age 18 to 34, with 77 percent of Democratic voters saying they would never use the platform, according to research carried out in June by digital marketing agency Search Logistics.
So it may not be surprising that many of the posts made by the campaign account for the Democratic candidate, Trump’s opponent in this year’s election, are not met with many positive responses—and Truth Social’s welcome message to @HarrisHQ foreshadowed this.
One user (@ErichDerbsch), a MAGA supporter with a photo of Trump as his background picture, posted an AI-generated image of Biden and Harris in clown makeup with the caption: “Switching out one clown for another clown won’t change the circus.”
The clown theme was repeated in several other replies, along with multiple references to Harris’ laugh, the focus of several previous online comments.
A “freedom-loving patriotic mom” (@Ree4Freedom), who has Trump’s mug shot as her background picture, wrote: “(Harris) can go straight to hell. I have NO interest in her or her campaign.”
One account (@Trump3311), which has posted several pro-Trump messages, was a bit more cordial, albeit snarky: “Welcome Kamala! We look forward to your words of wit and eloquence. Be advised though we are not communists here. We are Republican Constitutionalists. MAGA 2024.”
These types of responses seem to have continued throughout the campaign, including one more recently, on October 10, when a @HarrisHQ post about empty seats at a Trump rally in Pennsylvania attracted hundreds of replies.
A “tactical memes” account (@LouCozzolino), which has posted anti-Democratic content multiple times, shared an image with the words: “Kamala: ‘People leave Trump rallies early.’ B**** please, they don’t even leave when bullets start flying.”
The user was seemingly referring to the July 13 assassination attempt on Trump at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
There were also multiple replies referencing recent critiques, from Trump and other MAGA supporters, about the recent hurricane response from Harris, and the Biden administration in general.
Many of these claims have been deemed misinformation, with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) emerging to clear up some of them, but the controversy around the government’s hurricane response has seemingly still hurt Harris.
Newsweek asked some political scientists why Harris’ campaign would run an account on Truth Social, where it seems to be met almost exclusively with animosity.
“Harris covers a few bases with this approach,” said John Geer, professor of political science and dean of the College of Arts and Science at the private Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee.
He told Newsweek: “An account on Truth Social shows that she is seeking to reach out to all voters—a theme of her campaign. Such an account will also capture Trump’s interest and attention and, thus, might allow for a bit of trolling.
“Finally, she is hoping for the news media to cover this part of her campaign, again showing the reach of her message. It is, frankly, a low-cost investment with some return on that investment.”
Similarly, Dr. Thomas Gift, associate professor of political science at the University College London (UCL) School of Public Policy, said: “For politicians, generally the more counter-programming that they can run, the better.”
He added to Newsweek: “Even if Truth Social is Trump’s platform and leans to the right, there’s little to no harm in trying to appeal to skeptical voters.
“One of the mistakes that past Democratic candidates have arguably made is writing off consumers of uncongenial media.
“Whether that’s a social media network like Truth Social or a legacy media like Fox News, Democrats can’t complain that conservative voters think a certain way if they make no effort to reach them where they are.”
Political science professor Jeremy Walling, from Southeast Missouri State University, told Newsweek: “The first goal would just be exposure.”
But he went on: “The question of who they’re targeting is tricky, because most Trump supporters, perhaps especially those who abandoned traditional social media for Truth Social, would see any Harris-sponsored content as unserious.
“However, it’s possible that within this population is a subgroup of citizens who were attracted to Truth Social due to the ‘freedom of expression’ claims made by Trump (etc.), but who might be skeptical of some aspect of Trump or his campaign (I guess I’m referring to the ‘look past his personality and look at his policies’ crowd).”
He added that when Truth Social was created, Biden was still the presumed Democratic candidate and Elon Musk did not own X.
“So again, it’s possible that this is a group of individuals on Truth Social who might be more favorable to the messaging of the Harris campaign than that of Biden, but haven’t really seen as much of her campaign’s content,” Walling said. “They’re not getting it from Fox or Newsmax, they’re not getting it from Trump.”
“So the Harris campaign sees this as a relatively cheap opportunity to expose content to a group of potentially persuadable voters, however small this group might be,” he added.
Newsweek has contacted the Harris campaign and Truth Social via email for comment.
Election Day is November 5, less than three weeks away. The presidential race between Harris and Trump is expected to remain incredibly tight. See the latest polls here.
