Donald Trump to host a Reddit AMA during the Democratic convention
Trump's Ask Me Anything session Wednesday coincides with Obama appearance at DNC
Ask him anything, ladies and gentlemen. Seriously. Anything.
You may not get an answer, but the entire internet population is legitimately invited to ask Donald Trump anything on Reddit — which should prove entertaining, at the very least.
The Republican presidential nominee's camp on Monday announced that Trump would be hosting his first ever Reddit Ask Me Anything (AMA) session on Wednesday starting at 7 p.m. ET, though participants will also be able to submit their questions a full half-hour in advance for consideration.
An email, presented on Trump/Pence campaign letterhead, was screenshotted and shared by several journalists on Twitter on Monday morning.
Trump is doing an ask me anything on Reddit this Wednesday <a href="https://t.co/dPbqvmAUS1">pic.twitter.com/dPbqvmAUS1</a>
—@oliverdarcy
It's not unusual for politicians to host Reddit AMAs. President Obama actually won a lot of praise in 2012 for opening himself up to the sometimes tough crowd of more than 50 million (at the time) Redditors.
Obama's AMA session was so popular, in fact, that it crashed Reddit's servers with more than 200,000 concurrent visitors at once. To this day, it remains one of the most popular Reddit posts in history.
Trump is not Obama, however, and his scheduled AMA is already different from those we've seen from most politicians in the past — most notably in that it's slated to take place on a pro-Trump subreddit called r/The_Donald as opposed to Reddit's official channel for high-profile Q&As.
That means that it won't be promoted or, more importantly, moderated by Reddit. The company won't even confirm that it's taking place at this time, which "could mean that it's going ahead without Reddit's official blessing," according to TechCrunch.
It is of note that the usually loquacious Trump has also been silent about the event on Twitter thus far, but a news release announcing the AMA was indeed published to his official website early Monday evening.
The team behind r/The_Donald has also been promoting the event heavily, and news coverage of the impending AMA has inspired thousands of tweets about why this is either a disastrous or a brilliant move for team Trump.
Apparently the <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/TrumpAMA?src=hash">#TrumpAMA</a> is happening in /r/The_Donald not /r/IAMA. Good luck <a href="https://twitter.com/reddit">@Reddit</a> management. <a href="https://t.co/o41w2orQkE">https://t.co/o41w2orQkE</a>
—@jasonrashaad
Of course, it hasn't been lost on anyone that Trump's first ever Reddit AMA is scheduled to take place just as the Democratic convention hits its peak on Wednesday night.
Trump appears to have chosen for his buzzworthy, self-run Reddit event the exact time block during which Obama and Vice-President Joe Biden are expected to speak at the DNC — which, it could be argued, is kind of like a high school jock throwing a "no parents present" house party during the debate club's annual mixer.
Will Hillary Clinton supporters bail on her composed convention live stream for Trump's unattended, anything-could-happen rager?
Probably not — but you can bet that at least a few will be curious enough to drive by the latter soiree, just to see how wild it really gets.
Donald Trump is hosting an AMA?! <a href="https://t.co/Mcw4wpryES">pic.twitter.com/Mcw4wpryES</a>
—@DannyCarrizoza