Donald Trump Joins Twitch, an Amazon-Owned Video Platform

This week, U.S. President Donald Trump added another social media account to his list: Twitch. Trump isn't the first presidential candidate to use Twitch, an Amazon-owned video game streaming service, as Bernie Sanders and Andrew Yang also use the platform. 

However, what's interesting here is that in the past, Trump has been openly critical of Amazon, which has owned Twitch since 2014. Moreover, the American president has not held his opinion back about what he thinks of Jeff Bezos, the CEO of Amazon. 

Trump only joined Twitch a couple of days ago, and as of this writing, has 39,956 followers on the social media site. 

RELATED: PRESIDENT TRUMP JOINS THE FACEBOOK LIBRA CRITICS

Presidential re-election strategy

It's no secret that Trump joining Twitch is part of his 2020 presidential campaign. It's yet another platform to reach out to hundreds of thousands, or even millions of Americans, many of them young. 

President Trump has created a channel on Amazon's Twitch, a sign he plans to use the live-streaming platform to promote his 2020 re-election campaign https://t.co/xkmb4oHwQl

— The Wall Street Journal (@WSJ) October 11, 2019

It looks like Trump might not use the video game streaming site for streaming or playing video games. He's used it to promote his rally in Minneapolis, Minnesota, which took place last night. 

Further down on his Twitch page, there's a button that allows followers to donate to his campaign. 

However, Trump joining Twitch is still a surprise, even if it looks like a smart campaign tactic. 

Trump denigrating Amazon

During Trump's 2016 presidential campaign, he openly attacked Bezos and his ownership of the Washington Post, dubbing it the "Amazon Washington Post." Trump believed that Bezos' reason for purchasing the Post was in a bid to receive favorable coverage. 

However, Amazon does not directly own the Post. Nash Holdings Inc., another company, started by Bezos, bought the Post. Trump, though, stuck to his guns and said this about the parent company: "If I become president, oh, do they have problems."

Trump's dislike for Amazon didn't end there. In August of this year, via the White House, he ordered the Department of Defence to carefully look into a $10 billion contract regarding cloud computing. His reasons? "Because of concerns that the deal would go to Amazon."

It's crystal clear that Trump dislikes Amazon. What's less clear is why Trump is comfortable joining a site that is directly owned by Amazon.

Perhaps Trump is branching out and finding new ways to reach out and gather supporters, even if that means using one of Bezos' platforms.