Jewish Coder’s Bot Creates Press Releases From Trump Tweets — Goes Viral
Graphic by Angelie Zaslavsky
By Josh Nathan-Kazis June 5, 2017
A new Twitter bot has gained 56,000 followers by reformatting President Donald Trump’s tweets as official White House press releases.
A statement by the President: pic.twitter.com/ekqD5bFRij
— Real Press Sec. (@RealPressSecBot) June 5, 2017
It’s a simple, brilliant juxtaposition that’s drawn wide praise in Twitter’s media circles since it appeared yesterday.
Start following @RealPressSecBot, who treats President Trump’s tweets as we all should: Official statements from the White House.
— Matt Viser (@mviser) June 5, 2017
The account, @RealPressSecBot, is the creation of Jewish coder and educator Russel Neiss, who is on something of a roll this year. In January, his bot @stl_manifest, was a similarly viral sensation. That account tweeted the names and fates of passengers son the ill-fated 1939 voyage of the M.S. St. Louis, which American immigration officials turned back to Nazi Germany. Many of the passengers died in Nazi concentration camps.
Neiss created that account days after Trump signed the first version of the travel ban restricting immigration and visitors from certain Muslim countries.
Contact Josh Nathan-Kazis at [email protected] or on Twitter, @joshnathankazis.
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