Research/Study
On Facebook, right-leaning pages are leading the conversation about Trump’s arraignment
Right-leaning pages earned over 53% of interactions — nearly 2 million — on posts about the arraignment from U.S. politics and news pages
Published
According to a new Media Matters study, right-leaning Facebook pages led the conversation about former President Donald Trump’s indictment in the 24 hours after he arrived at the New York courthouse for his arraignment, earning the most total interactions on related posts compared to other news and politics pages, despite ideologically nonaligned pages posting the most.
Other key findings include:
- Right-leaning pages accounted for 64 of the top 100 posts about the arraignment that were posted from news and politics pages between 2 p.m. ET on April 4 and 2 p.m. ET on April 5. The 64 posts earned over 1 million total interactions.
- Trump’s livestream of his speech at Mar-a-Lago following his arraignment earned the most interactions during that timeframe, with nearly 122,000 interactions and nearly 650,000 views. In fact, Trump’s livestream is one of a total of 6 posts from right-leaning pages in the top 10 posts to receive the most interactions. The other 5 posts earned over 216,000 total interactions and expressed support for Trump or attacked Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg.
- Posts about the arraignment from right-leaning Facebook pages attacked Bragg, amplified attacks on Judge Juan Merchan – the judge handling Trump’s case – and his daughter, defended and praised Trump, and shared other related right-wing narratives.