Throughout his campaign, Donald Trump has thrown some sympathetic tweets in Senator Bernie Sanders' direction, saying his opponent Hillary Clinton may drop out and suggesting Sanders should run as an independent. Trump once again name-dropped Sanders as he accepted his nomination for president at the Republican National Convention on Thursday, but the Vermont Senator live-tweeted the speech and made it very clear he was not here for it.
In his tweets, Sanders denounced Trump and urged his supporters not to vote for the Republican. Trump tried to position himself as an outsider and draw sympathy from Sanders supporters saying, "I have seen firsthand how the system is rigged against our citizens, just like it was rigged against Bernie Sanders – he never had a chance."
He has since promised to do everything he can to keep Trump out of the White House, and tweeted specific criticism's of the businessman's views on foreign policy and trade throughout the speech.
Trump is wrong. The real cause of instability in the Middle East was the Bush-Cheney invasion of Iraq. By the way, where is President Bush?
He also slammed Trump's views on climate change, called his views unconstitutional and even likened him to a dictator for implying he wouldn't work with Congress. According to Twitter, it became the top retweeted tweet during Trump's speech.
Trump: “I alone can fix this.”
Is this guy running for president or dictator? #RNCwithBernie
Sanders also wondered when Trump was going to speak on some actual issues that matter to him and his supporters.
Bernie also called Trump a hypocrite for manufacturing his products outside of the U.S. while promising to create jobs for Americans.
Sanders wasn't the only person unimpressed with Trump's speech, according to Drew Margolin, a professor studying human dynamics through social media at Cornell University. He tracked how voters react on Twitter to presidential candidates since the primaries began using a new method of real-time analysis and found Trump should not suspect a bounce in support following his speech.
"Trump’s goal with the convention, and his speech in particular, was not just to neutralize a resistance movement, it was to generate more positive feeling toward him among all groups – those who love him, those on the fence, and those who are skeptical," he said. "Here, there is no evidence that Trump’s speech was a success. "
