Trump follows, then promptly unfollows CNN on Twitter

President Donald Trump raised a few eyebrows earlier Monday morning after he followed CNN on Twitter. The move briefly increased his official following count from what had been a stable 45 — to 46.

If you were up early enough for it, it looked something like this.

President Donald Trump briefly followed CNN this morning pic.twitter.com/fWdK0SYF0P

— Jon Levine (@LevineJonathan) March 26, 2018

It looks like the decision to follow was made in error and the president moved to swiftly unfollow the account less than an hour later.

The drama was tracked in real time by the "Trump Alert" bot, which tracks the Twitter movements of members of the Trump family.

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— Trump Alert (@TrumpsAlert) March 26, 2018

realDonaldTrump appears to no longer follow @CNN. (This bot cannot tell if this was an unfollow, suspension or block.)

— Trump Alert (@TrumpsAlert) March 26, 2018

Despite having nearly 50 million followers, the president has long maintained 45 as the number of people he would follow back. ( 45 for the 45th president). The lucky few are a mix of Fox News personalities, Trump family members, a few close friends, and official accounts for his properties.

The accidental CNN follow suggests Trump was scrolling through the coverage there this morning — despite his official antipathy for the network. The president routinely blasts CNN coverage as fake news and his press secretary, Sarah Sanders, has increasingly ignored their White House correspondent Jim Acosta