Bloomberg's meatball-loving staff was behind odd tweets

Michael Bloomberg’s face on a meatball? His social media staff had some fun during the debate

Jan. 14, 2020 10:15 PM PT

During the Democratic debate, a Twitter account linked to former New York Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s presidential campaign sent out odd messages, like what kind of podium Bloomberg would use if he made a debate stage and another that featured his face on a meatball.

The account, which is verified by Twitter and had more than 19,000 followers (and counting), started tweeting around the beginning of the debate, promising to share facts about Bloomberg.

He responded with seeming puzzlement.

“Should I be worried about this?” Bloomberg tweeted, from his own account.

The goofy tweets began by offering facts, such as details about Bloomberg’s early life, then progressing into odd statements including: “Like Bruce Wayne, Mike is a cosmopolitan philanthropist. As far as whether Mike dons a disguise to fight crime at night, we are legally not allowed to say.”

Then came the meatballs.

“Test your political knowledge,” prompted a tweet with a photo of Bloomberg’s face camouflaged in a photo of a plate of meatballs. “Spot the meatball that looks like Mike.”

The quirky tweets continued. “Mike has given billions to charity, but refuses to give another cent to his lazy slacker nephew, Duane,” one read. And: “Mike is still annoyed that he never got his security deposit back after leaving City Hall.”

The account, which briefly featured the meatball with Bloomberg’s face for its profile picture, also tweeted a photo of two eagles, one stoic and the other squawking, and asked, “Which eagle looks more disgusted with Donald Trump?” in all caps.

Galia Slayen, a spokeswoman for the campaign, confirmed that the tweets came from the staff’s social media team in an attempt to try “something fun.”