American’s Twitter Sentiments on Post 2016 US Elections
Mike Togle
December 28, 2016
To say that the results of the 2016 US Elections elicited a strong reaction from a large number of people is the understatement of the year, if not the decade. Euphoric supporters from the Trump campaign reveled at their surprise victory while silent shock could be seen in their counterparts at the Clinton HQ.
Needless to say, people are obviously stunned with the results, and not just the Americans but even us on the opposite side of the world. Trump’s victory is not what most people were expecting given the numerous poll results declaring Hillary as the next President.
Almost two weeks after the US Elections and few days before Thanksgiving Day in US, the Pointwest Data Science Team extracted some tweets to analyze the sentiment of the public during this period.
The extracted tweets are those created from the period of November 21 at around 6:40 PM until the following day, November 22 at around 8:46 AM. A total of 197, 863 tweets from 108, 680 different Twitter users are gathered. Most of the tweets are retweets with only 47, 402 that are not.
Post US Elections Twitter Word Cloud
Words that are very noticeable in a word cloud are the most used words in a document or a set of documents. In this case, we examined and processed set of tweets to create a word cloud. The most used terms from all the tweets the team has extracted are “Trump”, “video”, “hail”, “president”, “united”, “white”, “first”, “day”, “elect”, “call”, “state”, “american”, “college”, “people”, “business”, “donald”, and others. While it is hard to distinctly identify the most popular topics from the tweets extracted by just looking at the word cloud, results from topic analysis from the latter part of the article will help us understand the talking points further.
Electoral Candidate’s Share of Voice
With Trump leading the elections, it is more likely that Twitter users would talk about him rather than Clinton, and the chart above supports that. The difference in share of voice is very remarkable. While the more than 175,000 tweets talked about him, it does not necessarily mean that people are happy about the results. So it just makes sense to examine the themes of the tweets, and scrutinize whether they are positive or not.
Polarity of Tweets on Donald Trump
Less than half of the tweets about Trump are positive, and that is more than twice the number of negative tweets. These positive tweets can be expressions of support for Trump or for US under his leadership, or can be expressions of satisfaction on the results of the elections. To validate it, topic analysis is done. The results can be checked on the latter part of this article.
Polarity of Topics on Hillary Clinton
For Clinton, although the number of tweets is relatively smaller compared to those for Trump, the ratio of positive to negative tweets is almost the same. The chart below shows the distribution of Clinton tweets by polarity.
Trending Election-Related Topics
‘Hail Trump’ Video
Keywords: hail, white, nationalists, cheering, video, salute, neo, nazi
‘Hail Trump!’: Video of white nationalists cheering the president-elect https://t.co/5OISq8dcV9 pic.twitter.com/KxyGXlAqXG
— The Atlantic (@TheAtlantic) November 22, 2016
Neo-Nazi “alt-right” crowd cheers the president-elect with “Hail Trump” and Nazi salutes https://t.co/DvN5jAGHxA pic.twitter.com/dE3F7n89xl
— Los Angeles Times (@latimes) November 22, 2016
@alecrider @politico @politico_media Disgraceful. Thank God our President-elect has disavowed these hate groups constantly
— Tom Hebert (@TomHebert96) November 22, 2016
Two weeks since Trump is elected president we’re now talking about Nazis and the imminent threat of white nationalist. Good job America.
— Ugene’s Politics ? (@UgenesPolitics) November 22, 2016
One of the widely talked topics in the extracted tweets is the ‘Hail Trump’ video that quickly went viral. The video happened in an alt-right conference. In it, the audience of white nationalist Richard Spencer are seen offering cheers, applause and Nazi salutes as he delivers an anti-Semitic speech. A lot of Americans are expressing their concern over this matter. Trump immediately disavowed the group, which delighted the public.
Conflict of Interest
Keywords: argentina, argentine, ivanka, saudi, macri, eight, business, tower, trump
The Argentine president denied that Trump asked for help with his building. But he did admit Ivanka was on the call. https://t.co/8CMmUxdjte
— Jamil Smith (@JamilSmith) November 22, 2016
Argentine President Macri: Ivanka Trump sat in on my call with her father https://t.co/4m4XjC0WXx pic.twitter.com/YhNMfo8yD6
— Raw Story (@RawStory) November 22, 2016
WTF? Ivanka Trump sat in on her daddy’s first meeting with a foreign dignitary https://t.co/n25rSvTO1c WHAT HAS TRUMP DONE RIGHT?
— E James (@jawja100) November 21, 2016
He registered 8 businesses in Saudi Arabia DURING campaign-scramble to assess dangers Trump’s global business empire https://t.co/kzRIQuTqFv
— Girls Really Rule. (@girlsreallyrule) November 21, 2016
Unlike many of his rivals – who are political leaders – Donald Trump is a billionaire businessman and comes to office with substantial business interests. It is inevitable that questions of propriety regarding these economic activities will be made, given the political power he will wield.
An example is on accusations of conflict of interest made on Twitter as details concerning a call from the president of Argentina spread online. President Macri called Trump to congratulate him for being the President-Elect and speculations about Trump asking favors and talking about his building permit for the Trump Tower in Buenos Aires circulated online. The supposed green-lighting of the project that came after the alleged phone call added fuel to these speculations.
Although this was later denied by the Argentine officials, it was then revealed by President Macri that Ivanka Trump sat in on his call to Trump which further elicited negative reactions. The news about Trump having registered eight companies in Saudi during the campaign period also spread along with this issue.
Off-the-record Meeting
Keywords: meeting, media, tower, trump, liars
Trump summons network executives and anchors from ‘the dishonest media’ to Trump Tower | Daily Mail Online https://t.co/hl8z1pnxxc
— StrongWomenLoveTrump (@mcgilh) November 21, 2016
Trump calls ‘mainstream’ media execs and anchors from #NBC #ABC #CBS #CNN #MSNBC ‘liars’ during ‘disaster’ meeting https://t.co/GGIrT8FHue
— IKON London Magazine (@Ikoniclondon) November 22, 2016
Another event that took place and gathered so much attention on Twitter is the off-the-record meeting of Trump with the network executives and anchors of ABC, CNN, NBC, CBS, MSNBC, Fox News and Fox Business Network that allegedly happened in Trump Tower. The meeting was supposed to be a closed-door one but some journalists deemed it necessary to share the story about what they described as the ‘disaster’ to the public. Trump calling media executives and anchors ‘liars’ focused the attention of the people to this issue
Transition in White House
Keywords: transition, video, first, policy, obama, cabinet, trans, pacific, update, day
Trump will withdraw US from TPP ‘on day one’ as he gives major policy address as president: Good, please pull out a disaster for everyone
— darrylhill74 (@darrylhill74) November 22, 2016
In case you missed it…President-elect Trump outlines policy plans for first 100 days in office. https://t.co/bI0NBdrDNw
— Detroit CP (@DetroitCP) November 22, 2016
MORE REALITY TV:
Trump outlines plans for first day in office, meets with Cabinet hopefuls https://t.co/VR9lXEQSZk via @Reuters— Andrew S. Ginsburg (@GinsburgJobs) November 22, 2016
A lot of people in Twitter are also sharing the video of Trump updating the public on the status of the White House transition and also outlining the policy plans he intends to do when he takes office in January. This video was well-received by the public. Tweets showed that a lot of Americans agrees and delights with his update and plans. Reports of Trump meeting with the Cabinet hopefuls also appeared in the tweets.
Meanwhile, president Obama has indicated that he will speak out if Trump does something that threaten ‘core values’ earning him some negative reactions.
‘Electoral College Electors: Make Hillary Clinton President on December 19’
Keywords: hillary, clinton, electoral, college, electors, december, stop
Did you sign yet? #ElectoralCollege #Electors: Please rescue us. Make #HillaryClinton President December 19. https://t.co/2zaXu7cEL9
— Sharon Carbine (@SharonCarbine) November 22, 2016
Electoral College Electors: Electoral College Make Hillary Clinton President on December 19 – Sign th… https://t.co/jKPoz4r69k via @Change
— Shawna Reppert (@ShawnaReppert) November 22, 2016
The Electoral College was meant to stop men like Trump from taking office https://t.co/Uhg0If0P2w
— Sam Harris (@SamHarrisOrg) November 21, 2016
WHY is #Hillary considered to be #AbovetheLaw??? #HillaryForPrison2016 https://t.co/N3Uoca6br6
— Matthew Schaefer (@MattRSchaefer) November 22, 2016
With Clinton’s lead in popular-vote, a lot of discussions about the Electoral College is being made by the people. Clinton’s name is often mentioned in these discussions. A lot of people are also sharing the link of a site containing a petition for making Hillary Clinton president on December 19.
Although most tweets mentioning Hillary is to support her or to share the link for the petition, there are also others that are against her.
Hamilton and “President” Mike Pence
Keywords: mike, pence, vp, hamilton
Vice President-Elect of America Mike Pence booed at Hamilton show https://t.co/ZQCQVtEesG
— The Daily News (@Thebazaardaily) November 21, 2016
Many of the Hamilton cast members lecturing Pence didn’t even bother to vote. https://t.co/vLWFf7neyn
— Paul Joseph Watson (@PrisonPlanet) November 22, 2016
I have come to the conclusion that Donald J. Trump will not be President, he will resign and allow Mike Pence to… https://t.co/eeHt8e9Eve
— JcanNYer (@BrainsB4Bods) November 22, 2016
CNN: Trump set to step down from position of President Elect giving Mike Pence the seat in the oval office: https://t.co/84qP9AIVbp“
— she-devil ☼ (@laryssabelle23) November 22, 2016
Mentions of the Mike Pence’s incident with the Chicago cast of Tony award-winning musical Hamilton, where they gave a post-show speech to the Vice President-elect (who watched the show that evening), are seen in the tweets. News stating ‘Hamilton stars haven’t voted in years’ is also circulating (the cast are mostly minorities).
Speculations of Trump’s impeachment or resignation to give Mike Pence the seat in the oval office and of Mike Pence being the Republican Party’s nominee for the next presidential race is also rampant.
Results of the Analysis
Donald Trump is now the 45th president of America, which was set in stone on the 19th of December when the electors cast their votes – when the real elections took place. With lots of people sharing the link of a petition for making Hillary Clinton the president, it can be said that a lot were still hoping for her victory. But based on the tweets collected, their number is rather few compared to those posts, discussions and links being shared related to Donald Trump and his presidency.
Trump is truly a man surrounded by controversy and the tweets collected seem to support this. In the span of almost two weeks from election day, a lot of things involving Trump and him being the next President happened that got the attention of the people that may have redirected their focus from Clinton to Trump and the future of America in his hands.
With a lot of things happening in social media, topics just come and go with only a few staying for a long time, but nothing is forgotten. Results of this analysis shows that a lot of people’s attention are on Trump and most of the Tweets mentioning him have a sentiment of either positive or neutral. But we are anticipating that towards December 19, mentions of Hillary will become rampant again on Twitter.
The abrupt change in the sentiment of the people is caused by the fast-paced flow of information, and with the many things that are happening everyday. But the sentiment of the public in social media not only mirrors our society, but it may also have the power to change it.
Hillary Clinton is not the first US Presidential candidate to have garnered the most popular votes – over a two million lead as of 2016’s Thanksgiving Weekend – but lost the contest due to the intricacies of the Electoral College. Her fellow Democrats Al Gore and John Kerry would understand.
But hers may be the first ever in US electoral history where the the candidate was touted to win, hands-down, by virtually every poll leading to the elections, only to lose so badly.
The reactions from that fateful day on November 8, 2016, reverberate up to this day.
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