Trump's suddenly a hit on Reddit

Redditors love Bernie -- but Donald Trump is not far behind. 

With the 2016 election in full swing, the Internet and social media are teeming with politics news and discussion. Reddit is no different. 

Well, Reddit is always a little different.

While Redditors are not squaring off in public just yet, a burgeoning rivalry has emerged among the Reddit polliterati between the two biggest outsiders -- Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump. 

For now, Sanders still has a considerable lead. His biggest subreddit -- /r/SandersForPresident -- counts more than 193,000 subscribers that "Feel the Bern." Trump, however, is catching up quickly.

/r/The_Donald is only 34,000 but growing about as fast as any other subreddit, according to Redditlist.com.

That easily bests other subreddits like /r/HillaryClinton (4,927 subscribers), /r/TedCruz (1,221 subscribers) and /r/Marco_Rubio (847 subscribers).

The election had already begun percolating on Reddit almost a year ago. In a Pew Research Center report released on Thursday, researchers found that in just three months (May, June and September of 2015), users had already left more than 350,000 comments referencing a political candidate. 

Pew also learned that 45% of users reported getting election news from the site -- a number that is about on par with Facebook and Twitter users. 

Even that early, Reddit's love of Sanders was evident. Of those comments, Sanders had already been mentioned more than Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump combined. 

Pew's report pointed out that this isn't an entirely new phenomenon. Outsiders Ron Paul and Howard Dean enjoyed early popularity on the Internet as well.

More recently, both Sanders and Trump have seen their subreddits become maybe the most active per subscribers, competing with other areas of Reddit that are many times its size.

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/r/SandersForPresident

The main Sanders subreddit is a one-stop shop for anyone looking to join the candidate's cause.

There's the usual posts of discussion threads, video clips and old pics -- such as this one of what is believed to be a young Sanders being hauled off by Chicago police officers during a 1963 civil rights demonstration.

The Sanders subreddit active not just in posting but also in helping the campaign, with its banner claiming that more than 81,000 calls have already been made through its phone bank system. There's also places to donate, information on how to vote and even a link to a Slack channel for people making calls on Sanders' behalf.

There is some blowback mounting however. Sanders supporters have been so active in getting posts near the top of Reddit, that some are getting tired of hearing about him.

Two fast-growing subreddits have sprung up out of this frustration: /r/BernieSandersSucks and /r/EnoughSandersSpam.

/r/The_Donald

It should come as no surprise that a combination of Reddit and Trump supporters yields one of the more bizarre corners of the Internet.

While the Sanders subreddit is a very serious place, Trump's is far more laid back -- and entertaining.

For instance:

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Trump's subreddit has grown almost overnight into an active and deepboard with a plenty of inside jokes and memes, most of which come from this video of a track from Australian EDM duo Knife Party laid over a Trump highlight reel. Fans and subscribers of the subreddits refer to themselves as "nimble navigators."

And, of course, "MAGA" -- Make America Great Again.

The Trump campaign just recently took notice, posting a thread thanking the community for its support and informing users how they can help the campaign by becoming one-person phone banks from the comfort of their own home.

Just like The Donald himself, Trump's subreddit loves to poke fun at Jeb Bush.

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Some things never change. 

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