Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump participated in an “Ask Me Anything,” or AMA, on Wednesday on Reddit, the self-described “front page of the internet” (for young men). He graced the conservative subreddit “The_Donald,” where he is considered something of a hero. People on the forum call him “God Emperor” and “His Nimbleness,” and refer to each other as “centipedes,” apparently a reference to a YouTube video that blends footage of Trump with narration of what sounds like a nature show on insects.
Trump appeared very excited for the event — “This is going to be SO HUGE,” he wrote on Facebook — but he showed up late, and appeared to have wi-fi problems. Once he got there, though, it wasn’t the type of wild spectacle people have come to expect from Trump. Unlike his free-wheeling press conference earlier on Wednesday, the AMA was full of canned talking points. (Sample answer: “I am never tired of winning, and as your president I will win for you, the American people. I’m with you!”) It was boring.
He, or whoever was running his account, submitted 12 comments. One user asked five questions, but Trump ignored all but the first two. He gave brief answers ― voter fraud is “a serious concern”; NASA “is wonderful” ― and did not discuss WikiLeaks or net neutrality. On a forum renowned for its informal style and lack of political correctness, he answered no personal questions, except one, barely: Which U.S. president do you admire the most? (”There have been many amazing Presidents in American history, including George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Dwight Eisenhower and Ronald Reagan, all of whom I greatly admire.”)
When President Barack Obama conducted his AMA in 2012, it was not a groundbreaking event. But Obama is also not the spotlight-hogging Donald. Obama answered 10 questions, about some of the main issues he was talking about in his campaign ― the economy, Obamacare, taxes ― but he also addressed balancing work and family life, his thoughts on the White House beer recipe, and his favorite basketball player (Michael Jordan).
Most questions Trump answered came from regular Reddit users who did not have obvious ties to white supremacists, a step up from Trump’s Twitter retweet list. He answered a question from Breitbart’s Milo Yiannopoulos, who was recently permanently suspended from Twitter after he encouraged people to harass Ghostbusters star Leslie Jones. (He denied responsibility.)
The moderators attempted to weed out “troublemakers” who might give the AMA bad press by removing comments from trolls, inactive users and new accounts. “We built the wall 10 ft taller, you might say,” a user wrote. (”Quick! Everybody act normal! There are 80 genders and Islam is a race!” said another.)
The ad-hoc fan club has reportedly been plagued by recent infighting, with leaders kicking out a moderator, “CisWhiteMaelstrom,” because he allegedly planned to coordinate with white nationalists. The AMA came together, according to NBC News, in part because one of the moderators reached out to Trump’s digital director. Trump now joins a list of AMA guests on the sub-reddit that includes Yiannopoulos, GotNews’ Chuck Johnson and InfoWars’ Alex Jones.
Here are all of the revelations from his AMA:
Answer 1: He thinks voter fraud is bad and NASA is good.
Answer 2: He thinks the media is biased.
Answer 3: He thinks Hillary Clinton is bad.
Answer 4: He thinks the immigration system is also bad.
Answer 5: He wants to get rid of Obamacare.
Answer 6: Did we mention he hates Hillary Clinton?
Answer 7: He supports police.
Answer 8: He likes George Washington and Ronald Reagan.
Answer 9: He wants to win Bernie Sanders supporters.
Answer 10: He is not tired of winning.
Answer 11: He will improve the economy.
Answer 12: He will make America great again.
Editor’s note: Donald Trump regularly incites political violence and is a serial liar, rampant xenophobe, racist, misogynist and birther who has repeatedly pledged to ban all Muslims ― 1.6 billion members of an entire religion ― from entering the U.S.
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