World Backup Day Deals Best Cloud Storage Options Apple AR/VR Headset Uncertainty Samsung Galaxy A54 Preorders iOS 16.4: What's New 10 Best Foods for PCOS 25 Easter Basket Ideas COVID Reinfection: What to Know
Want CNET to notify you of price drops and the latest stories?
No, thank you
Accept

Trump's new Twitter ad boasts about how much applause he got

Technically Incorrect: Did you know that those in the convention hall in Cleveland applauded 33 percent of the time. Now there's a belief in big data.

Technically Incorrect offers a slightly twisted take on the tech that's taken over our lives.


Trumplause is a substantial thing.

Donald Trump/Twitter screenshot by Chris Matyszczyk/CNET

As the Democratic Party performs its annual ritual of "I'll Stab Your Back If You Stab Mine," Donald Trump basks in applause.

I know this because he's released an ad on Twitter in which he basks in applause.

Giving big data a very big hand, the ad explains that the Republican nominee's speech at last week's convention in Cleveland was 75 minutes long.

It then reveals that there were 24 minutes of total applause.

That's a lot of applauding. He deserves to be applauded for that.

The math, though, doesn't stop there.

For the ad helpfully calculates that these 24 minutes translated to 33 percent of the time being given over to applauding.

Was there some grand conclusion?

A vast rallying cry to join in the applause or at least retweet with a clap hands emoji?

There was not.

There were just these tantalizing facts and a Trump-Pence logo, sans suggestive graphic.

Trump uses Twitter like a lumberjack uses an axe. It's there to fell everyone who stands in his way. On Sunday morning, for example, it was Bernie Sanders's turn to feel the sharpness of Trump's blade.

There's something uplifting, though, in knowing that Trump can pause in his enemy-felling to file his nails with his axe and hum a happy tune.

Some might mistake this for narcissism. Indeed, some Republicans already have. But if we're going to make America great again, we can't just criticize everyone else on Twitter.

We have to look at the data and praise ourselves too.