Donald Trump and Twitter are symbiotically enmeshed with one feeding the other, so it's not much of a surprise that Jack Dorsey, Twitter's CEO, popped by the White House for a chat with the president yesterday. Dorsey had apparently hoped to talk about Twitter's attempts to help fix America's opioid epidemic, but that's not quite what happened.

With the opportunity of asking Dorsey why Twitter is so rubbish at banning people who harass and abuse other users, or how to stop it being so easy to get mad numbers with straight-up lies, or why he's not made @dril some kind of executive yet, Trump got onto the thing that was really troubling him: why are his follower numbers down?

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According to the Daily Beast, Trump reportedly spent part of the chat moaning about how he keeps losing chunks of his followers, and linked it to one of his favourite hobbyhorses - the idea that conservative, specifically pro-Trump voices are being silenced on Twitter.

In fact it was something Trump tweeted about very shortly before the meeting itself, agreeing with Fox Business guest Daniel Ives that yes, he is the best thing ever to happen to Twitter, but "they don’t treat me well as a Republican. Very discriminatory, hard for people to sign on. Constantly taking people off list. Big complaints from many people. Different names-over 100 M... But should be much higher than that if Twitter wasn’t playing their political games."

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“The best thing ever to happen to Twitter is Donald Trump.” @MariaBartiromo So true, but they don’t treat me well as a Republican. Very discriminatory, hard for people to sign on. Constantly taking people off list. Big complaints from many people. Different names-over 100 M..... — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 23, 2019

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.....But should be much higher than that if Twitter wasn’t playing their political games. No wonder Congress wants to get involved - and they should. Must be more, and fairer, companies to get out the WORD! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 23, 2019

During the meeting, Dorsey reportedly told Trump that actually, that was just Twitter getting rid of bot and spam accounts, and that he himself had lost followers because of the sweeps. That seemed to placate him, at least enough to pop a 'cheers mate' pic on Twitter afterwards, and a lot of the conversation did actually focus on the opioid epidemic.

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Great meeting this afternoon at the @WhiteHouse with @Jack from @Twitter. Lots of subjects discussed regarding their platform, and the world of social media in general. Look forward to keeping an open dialogue! pic.twitter.com/QnZi579eFb — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 23, 2019

It's odd to think that talking about an opioid addiction crisis must feel like comparative treat, but here we are.

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