I more of the impression from eric trump/ 4 chan, the Trump campaign latched onto the idea of mobilizing internet/ social media support after erics initial feelers - it was around 2015 that i recall Steve Bannon (and big data firm Cambridge analytica) being given sole / complete control of Trumps entire digital election campaign. With that being said, it's easy when you are literally an insider and privy to info that hasn't even being released of even finalized, and know the movements of POTUS ahead of time. I recall Steve bannon in a side article to a trump 2015 election endorsement/ statement about how they were looking at ultizing big data analytics because you can (bannon's words) 'disseminate themes and ideas into the web space and watch them propagate and manifest in real time and over different platforms - and we are really interested in what we can do with this and how we can harness it over time '. = i honest to god wish i had saved/ bookmarked the article but it was in 2015 - and it never occured to me.