The curious case of Nicole Mincey, the Trump fan who may actually be a Russian bot

[mfcorey1]

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/the-curious-case-of-‘nicole-mincey’-the-trump-fan-who-may-actually-be-a-russian-bot/ar-AApEqof?li=BBnb7Kz&ocid=mailsignout


Early Saturday morning, President Trump tweeted his gratitude to a social-media super-fan, Nicole Mincey, magnifying her praise of him to his 35 million followers.

Here’s the problem: There is no evidence the Twitter feed belongs to someone named Nicole Mincey. And the account, according to experts, bears a lot of signs of a Russia-backed disinformation campaign.

The incident highlights Trump’s penchant for off-the-cuff tweeting — and the potential consequences for doing so now that he holds the nation’s highest office. Even as the president has railed against multiple investigations into Russia’s meddling in U.S. politics, he may have become Exhibit A of the foreign government’s influence by elevating a suspected Russia-connected ­social-media user — part a sophisticated campaign to exacerbate disputes in U.S. politics and gain the attention of the most powerful tweeter in the world.

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“The president doesn’t know whether it’s a Russian bot or not,” said Clint Watt, a former FBI agent and fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute, using the term for a fake Twitter account pretending to represent a real person and created to influence public opinion or promote a particular agenda. “He’s just pushing a narrative, whether it’s true or false. This provides a window not just for Russia but for any adversary to both influence the president or discredit him.”

As a candidate, Trump became known for amplifying tweets from accounts of dubious origin, including one under the name @WhiteGenocideTM, and for disseminating anti-Semitic memes that bubbled up from some of the darkest corners of the Internet.

As president, not much has changed. Trump still routinely hits the retweet button if a Twitter user echoes his criticism of his adversaries or showers him with praise — regardless of who that user is or what his or her motives may be.

Aides and advisers have hinted that Trump has been urged to tone down his tweeting habits, but the president has shut down those conversations quickly, according to two people who have witnessed such exchanges. He also has on occasion followed bouts of public discourse about his Twitter feed with a rapid-fire tweet storm — perhaps an implicit signal that he has no intention of ceding control of his account to aides now that he is in the White House.

Trump’s tweet storms of the past several days, for instance, have followed intense speculation that his new chief of staff, John F. Kelly, might try to exert greater control over the president’s account. The message? That’s probably not going to happen.

During his six-month tenure, Trump’s former chief of staff, Reince Priebus, was unable to do much to rein in Trump’s social-media rants. Lawyers have tried and failed to impress upon the president the risks of discussing the ongoing investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election and possible collusion by his campaign associates.

[dalton99a]

1. Many of his fans use this keyboard: