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Twitter is Osawa Yuka Archivesgrowing. Twitter. Is. Growing.

The service has been mostly flat or shrinking for months, but not this past quarter. In the first quarter of 2017, Twitter’s Daily Active Users rocketed up 14 percent and the Monthly Active number is now 328 million.

SEE ALSO: Twitter, for once, is soaring and says it's seeing less abuse on site

It rose by 9 million in three months!

What else has been going on for three months?

Donald Trump’s presidency.

I know, that’s crazy talk. This turnaround is not Trump’s doing. It can’t be.

Twitter certainly doesn’t see it.

The social media platform cites significant progress in shutting down abusive behavior even as Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey noted that they found that abusive accounts make up “a small percentage” of overall accounts.

There are service updates like significant changes on the Twitter reply front, with more characters thanks to the removal of the reply Twitter handle and the changes in the direct messaging platform.

Video streaming is growing fast, with 800 hours to 45M viewers in this quarter.

Yes. Sure. All these things could have played a role in Twitter’s happy news.

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Yet, none of that considers the Twitter X-Factor that is Donald Trump.

Our 45th President did the unprecedented and continued to personally tweet on his personal account, often in the wee hours of the morning, when he’d had too much caffeine or not enough. I often imagine a lonely Trump (Melania is usually in New York) pacing the oval office in his pajamas (while still wearing an extraordinarily long red tie), grumbling to himself, agitated about something and not calming down until he crafts another tweet tirade.

Just this morning, the same morning of Twitter’s Q1 earnings report and call, Trump was on a tear about the Federal Judge who blocked his plan to defund sanctuary cities.

Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

Trump tweeting angrily about something or ranting in bizarre and impolitic ways is not a new, presidential tic. He did it before and during his run for the White House.

But now he’s president. The leader of the free world. Every Tweet has national and/or geopolitical implications. Seriously. He’s talking about policy. His policy.

Trump’s 140 characters could impact the Federal Government, economy, NATO, NAFTA, the courts, you name it. Trump is fully aware of this, and so is the public.

Barack Obama also tweeted, a little, from his personal account during his presidency. Virtually none of it related to policy, and the official @POTUS account was under the tight control of the Office of the White House. Trump's tweeting is unfettered by that kind of oversight.

Isn’t it conceivable that millions of people, especially in the U.S. where Twitter said growth was especially strong (along with 6 other strong markets), realized that they needed to join Twitter just to keep track of our excitable president. People both for and against Trump must wait at his social media knee for the latest angry retort or update on how he’ll pay for The Wall.

Many morning news shows now begin with the words: “This morning the president Tweeted.”

Historians and archivists watch Twitter for a Trump bon-mot for the Library of Congress. And they can’t be lazy about it since Trump might quickly delete a Tweet with a misspelling.

Shortly after Trump took office and I realized that not only would he keep Tweeting, but he would use the platform as a direct pipeline to his most ardent supporters and, of course, the media, I grew concerned that he would destroy Twitter.

I just didn’t factor in that, since Trump is President, people have to pay attention. And I think they want to because it’s an opportunity to hear unfiltered Trump.

It’s also possible that Trump’s immediate circle, including Dan Scavino, Sean Spicer and Ivanka Trump (but not senior advisor Jared Kushner) may be fueling a bit of Twitter growth as well, especially Spicer who is known for the occasional Twitter butt tweet.

Mistakes in the Trump Twittersphere are gold for the opposition, so you know they’re watching.

So, yes, Twitter may finally be winning by being about “What’s happening and what people are talking about” and it may also be winning by being about what the President of the United States has on his mind at 7AM in the morning.

Don’t be surprised if Trump takes credit for Twitter’s success in, naturally, a tweet.

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