Donald Trump might not have been centre stage at the Democratic debate, but he did his best to become the talking point of it.
Trump caused a ripple of anticipation with his promise to live-tweet proceedings as five candidates set out their political agendas and vision at the first Democratic presidential debate on Tuesday.
Instead, the outgoing New York business magnate mostly tweeted about himself or shared tweets declaring him the true winner of a debate he didn't even participate in.
Trump made a number of headline-grabbing, provocative statements when he was one of ten Republican candidates selected for the GOP debate and appeared keen to ensure he captured the nation's attention during the Democratic turn. Despite his tweets lacking incisive commentary, his attempt appears to have been at least partly successful. Data collected by Vocativ shows Trump amassed another 60,000 followers by the middle of the debate - roughly four times the number gained by Hillary Clinton. His surge in followers was only equalled by the left wing candidate Bernie Sanders, who gained over 50,000 between his two Twitter accounts.
The focus of his posts were largely about his suitability for President.
A tweet claiming illegal immigrants would be offered Obamacare and free collage tuition was his most popular tweet and was shared over 11,000 times.
The few comments he did make directly about the debate offered little analysis of the arguments presented by the five Democratic candidates.
Trump fell foul of the live tweeting trend when women decided to live-tweet their periods at him after he made controversial comments apparently suggesting a Fox News anchor was angry because she was menstruating.
He was targeted for weeks with tweets updating him on where women were in their cycle, with the hashtag #periodsarenotaninsult
