President Donald Trump now has the most followers of any world leader on the social media platform Twitter, with 39.7 million followers, taking the lead away from Pope Francis, according to a report in Politico.
The president's Twitter account, @RealDonaldTrump, reached 40 million followers by Wednesday afternoon.
The pope has 39.5 million spread over accounts that send the same messages in Spanish, English, Italian, Portuguese, Polish, French, Latin, German, and Arabic, according to figures by public relations firm Burston-Marsteller.
Third highest among world leaders is Narendra Modi, India's prime minister, with 34.9 million for his official Twitter account, @narendramodi. An additional 21.3 million follow the account of the Indian prime minister's office, @PMOIndia, according to Politico.
Trump also holds the fifth and sixth positions on the list, with 20.5 million on the @POTUS account and 15.6 million on @WhiteHouse.
Former President Barack Obama exceeds Trump's numbers, with 95.6 million followers. Singers Katy Perry and Justin Bieber each have more than 100 million followers, Politico's report said.
Trump has found Twitter to be an effective means of bypassing the mainstream media to reach out to the American people. In tweets Wednesday, Trump announced that he was about to land in Las Vegas to pay his respects to victims of the Sunday shooting attack.
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