--- title: Republican Debate: Donald Trump Dominates Twitter description: No other candidate has replaced him. canonical: https://time.com/4150216/republican-debate-donald-trump-twitter/ author: Daniel White article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-12-15T22:18:15.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-19T07:44:13.132Z article:section: Politics og:title: Donald Trump Dominates Twitter on Debate Nights og:description: But he's starting to slow down, according to the social media giant og:url: https://time.com/4150216/republican-debate-donald-trump-twitter/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9225407c2e39ea68/6988757bbc6cfc52103dadb7/donald-trump-twitter.jpg?branch=production&width=594&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 594 og:image:height: 334 og:image:alt: Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally at the Westgate Las Vegas Resort & Casino on December 14, 2015 in Las Vegas, Nevada. og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Donald Trump Dominates Twitter on Debate Nights twitter:description: But he's starting to slow down, according to the social media giant twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9225407c2e39ea68/6988757bbc6cfc52103dadb7/donald-trump-twitter.jpg?branch=production&width=594&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Donald Trump Dominates Twitter on Debate Nights > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. by [Daniel White](https://time.com/author/daniel-white/) ## Daniel White Dec 15, 2015 10:18 PM UTC  Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally at the Westgate Las Vegas Resort & Casino on December 14, 2015 in Las Vegas, Nevada. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally at the Westgate Las Vegas Resort & Casino on December 14, 2015 in Las Vegas, Nevada. Justin Sullivan—Getty Images by [Daniel White](https://time.com/author/daniel-white/) ## Daniel White Dec 15, 2015 10:18 PM UTC Donald Trump has dominated the Twitter conversation during debates, but he’s starting to slow down, according to data compiled by the social media giant. The real estate mogul’s mentions on debate night have been on the decline since September’s CNN debate, when he took a 37% share of the conversation, but no other candidate has come close to replacing him, Twitter said. Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush came in as the second most talked about candidate on the social network during the second and fourth Republican debates, while Ben Carson took that title during the first debate while Texas Sen. Ted Cruz won it during the fourth. “In the last debate, the share of Tweets about each of the other candidates on stage was the closest to dead-even we’ve seen yet — seven candidates within a three-point spread,” wrote Twitter spokesman Nicholas Pacilio in a press release. Trump is also coming off a strong week on Twitter. During what was the most-Tweeted non-debate week of the campaign, he saw the highest level of mentions last week with about 3.5 million Tweets referring to the real estate mogul. That’s about double his weekly average.  Trump’s share of the conversation on Twitter during debates has dropped, but no other candidate has emerged to replace him at the top. There were about 3.5 million Tweets sent last week mentioning Trump, which is about double his weekly average. 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