Is there fraud behind it?: Vance trumps Trump on social media

After the inauguration of Donald Trump (78) and JD Vance (40) yesterday, Monday, their predecessors Joe Biden (82) and Kamala Harris (60) handed over the official Instagram account names of the US President and Vice President. Around 24 hours later it became clear: Vice President Vance is apparently much more popular on social media than the president. In the race for the most followers, he is at least ahead.

As of January 21st, JD Vance had already collected 9.4 million followers on his new website. However, only 2.7 million people currently follow it. The two accounts were probably created around the same time. Trump shared his first post late Monday afternoon German time, in which he ushered in “the golden age for America.” In his first post, Vance shared a photo that shows him taking the oath of office next to his wife Usha Vance (39) and their three children.

For comparison: Kamala Harris’ “vp” account, which can now be found, was able to collect 16.9 followers in four years, Biden’s “potus”, , had 18.7 million followers.

On Trump and Vance’s personal Instagram accounts, however, the relationship looks a little different: the 45th and 47th Presidents of the United States are followed by almost 31 million people, while Vance is followed by just 1.3 million people.

It is unclear why JD Vance has collected more followers than Trump on his official account in such a short time. In any case, numerous users complain that they did not follow the account independently. “Wow, the man is buying followers,” it says. “I didn’t follow you, why am I seeing this?” writes one user.

This theory is also supported by a look at the official X profiles of Vance and Trump: While 909,500 people follow them, there are only 205,000 followers.