Michael McFaul engagement report
@McFaul - 888K followers on X
Measured over 64 original posts from a 30-day window, last computed on September 22, 2026.
Engagement
A typical post picks up 216 interactions against 888K followers, an engagement rate of 0.024%. Measured over 64 original posts, its engagement rate beats 47% of 20,444 tracked accounts of a similar size, which puts it in the middle of its size range rather than at either end. Posts are seen about 24K times each, and 0.89% of those impressions turn into an interaction. That is about 2.73% of the follower count, which is the gap between an audience on paper and an audience in a timeline. Posting runs at about 5.4 posts a day over the last 30 days, though only 33% of days saw any activity at all. Most posts go out around 15:00 UTC, and Tuesday is the busiest day of the week. Of the 64 posts sampled, 45% carry an image or video and 28% link out. The account's strongest tracked post pulled 15K interactions, about 70x its own typical post. Recurring topics include #china, #freeminzin, #us.
Measured over 64 original posts from a 30-day window, last computed on September 22, 2026. Recurring tags: #china, #freeminzin, #us.
Compared with accounts its own size
Michael McFaul's engagement rate beats 47% of the tracked X accounts closest to it in follower count (20,444 accounts, accounts of similar size (decile 10 of 10)). A percentile is spread evenly by construction, so 50 really is the middle of that group and 90 really is its top tenth.
On engagement per impression rather than per follower it beats 44% of the same group. When those two numbers disagree, the gap is about how far its posts travel rather than how people react to them.
Where this sits in the catalog
At 0.024%, Michael McFaul sits above the 25th percentile of the 204,583 accounts in this comparison. That places it in the below the median band, which runs 0.024% to 0.143%.
Show the percentile table
| Percentile | Engagement rate |
|---|---|
| 10th percentile | 0.004% |
| 25th percentile | 0.024% |
| 50th percentile | 0.143% |
| 75th percentile | 0.677% |
| 90th percentile | 2.55% |
| 99th percentile | 82.4% |
This ruler is the whole measured catalog, not a size-matched group: it shows where the raw rate falls across every account we can measure, all of which are large. For a like-for-like comparison, read the size-band percentile above instead. See how the bands are built
Posting timing
This account posts most often around 15:00 UTC, and Tuesday is its busiest day of the week. The bars below are the catalog-wide pattern, with this account's own busiest slot marked. They do not show how this account performs at each hour: we keep one aggregate per account, not one per hour, so that measurement does not exist in our data.
Show engagement by hour posted, utc as a table
| Hour (UTC) | Vs author median | Posts |
|---|---|---|
| 00:00 UTC | -1% | 89K |
| 01:00 UTC | -2% | 90K |
| 02:00 UTC | -3% | 88K |
| 03:00 UTC | -4% | 94K |
| 04:00 UTC | -5% | 76K |
| 05:00 UTC | -4% | 75K |
| 06:00 UTC | -5% | 86K |
| 07:00 UTC | -5% | 93K |
| 08:00 UTC | -4% | 108K |
| 09:00 UTC | -4% | 124K |
| 10:00 UTC | -3% | 129K |
| 11:00 UTC | -3% | 141K |
| 12:00 UTC | -3% | 154K |
| 13:00 UTC | -3% | 167K |
| 14:00 UTC | -4% | 173K |
| 15:00 UTC | -2% | 176K |
| 16:00 UTC | -3% | 171K |
| 17:00 UTC | -3% | 159K |
| 18:00 UTC | -2% | 149K |
| 19:00 UTC | -2% | 141K |
| 20:00 UTC | -1% | 131K |
| 21:00 UTC | 0% | 116K |
| 22:00 UTC | -2% | 100K |
| 23:00 UTC | -1% | 90K |
Show engagement by day of week as a table
| Day | Vs author median | Posts |
|---|---|---|
| Sunday | +5% | 393K |
| Monday | +1% | 483K |
| Tuesday | -2% | 520K |
| Wednesday | -3% | 472K |
| Thursday | -2% | 430K |
| Friday | -3% | 447K |
| Saturday | +2% | 393K |
Formats this account uses
Its own posting mix on the left, and what each of those formats does across every account we track on the right. Only formats where the effect clears our publish test appear here, so an empty row is a format we could not measure rather than one that does nothing.
| Format | This account | Catalog effect | 95% interval | Accounts behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Image or video | 45% of posts | +111% | +108% to +115% | 34K |
| Outbound link | 28% of posts | -41% | -42% to -40% | 32K |
| Typical length | - | no effect | -2% to -1% | 42K |
- 45% of this account's sampled posts carry an image or video. Across the catalog, posts with an image or video run 111% above the same accounts' other posts.
- 28% of its posts carry a link off X. Across the catalog, posts with an outbound link run 41% below the same accounts' other posts.
- Its average post runs 239 characters, which falls in the 180 - 280 characters band. Across the catalog, posts of 180 to 280 characters match the same accounts' other posts almost exactly.
These are catalog-wide differences applied to this account's own posting mix, not a measurement of how each format performs for this account specifically. We keep one median per account, not one per format per account, so the second thing is not something this data can tell you.
Best tweets
- Sep 7, 202670x their median
Can you explain to me why Bin Laden, who destroyed two buildings, was hunted by the CIA for years — but a war criminal who bombs cities in Europe every day is having a meeting with the Special Representative of President of the United States? https://t.co/Nnz4RlOjIB
- Sep 6, 202647x their median
AfD chair Alice Weidel after big showing in Sachsen-Anhalt tells me: Friedrich Merz’s days as German Chancellor are numbered. “We ran on a clear platform of representing the interests of our country—not those of Ukraine or any other country. And I can tell you this: if we receive the mandate to govern at the federal level and assume governmental responsibility, we will cut all unnecessary spending. We will control our borders. We will deport all those required to leave the country and all criminals. We will close the borders.” “I also expect early federal elections, and I expect the current chancellor to be replaced before Christmas.” @CNN @claudiaotto @sebshukla
- Sep 6, 202635x their median
So striking to see Trump's son-in-law shuttling between Moscow and Kyiv, but not our Secretary of State. Is that because Rubio knows this mission has no chance of success and does not want to be associated with failure as he gears up to run for president next year? Other explanations?
- Aug 19, 202627x their median
Ukraine’s largest export to Europe is time https://t.co/63FZAQZsMA
- Sep 22, 202622x their median
Just watched Trumps speech (while I was on live tv waiting to comment on it). My biggest takeaways: Trump seemed tired. The speech was tired. Nothing new. The audience seemed tired (lots of folks scrolling on their phones) Seems like everyone is tired of the Trump era? Seems like this era is winding down. Maybe this mood kicks in after six years of all presidencies ?
- Aug 20, 202622x their median
The U.S. Army built a 600-soldier drone assault battalion in Europe to learn Ukraine’s war. Ukrainian drone operators then played the enemy in an exercise and beat a U.S. brigade. Now the Army will phase out the battalion after one Germany exercise, WSJ. 1/ https://t.co/n9rQgQXvy2
- Aug 21, 202620x their median
Russia has just hit the largest shopping mall in Kryvyi Rih, Ukraine. At least 15 people have been killed and more than 120 injured, including dozens of children. The death toll is still rising. This was a shopping mall. Not a military base. Not an ammunition depot. Not a command center. A shopping mall filled with ordinary people going about their lives. Russians attacked in two waves. After the first strike, emergency workers rushed to the scene to rescue the wounded. Then russians struck the area again. This is what russia’s war against Ukraine looks like - plain terrorism! Shopping malls. Apartment buildings. Hospitals. Schools. Families. Children. And while politicians continue talking about negotiations and “peace,” russia continues killing Ukrainian civilians. Russian evil must be stopped at any cost.
- Sep 6, 202618x their median
Maybe I missed something, but Ushakov's readout of the Putin-Witoff meeting didn't hint at a single concrete Russian concession. He just reiterated Putin's goals from February 2022. Did I miss something?
- Aug 17, 202618x their median
America won the Cold War by building strong alliances, championing democracy, anchoring the global financial system, and maintaining an open economy. Those same advantages could help us compete with China and Russia today. Trump is dismantling them. https://t.co/rgV1lAUpnu https://t.co/vSAXY01LPT
- Oct 28, 202516x their median
OUT TODAY! My new book, Autocrats vs. Democrats, looks at the challenges posed by autocratic Russia and China and explains how/why the U.S. must lead the democratic world in response. Available in stores or online: https://t.co/FIAaP05r5o @HooverInst @FSIStanford @MarinerBooks @HarperCollins
Ranked by total interactions across everything we have tracked for this account, which is a longer history than the 30-day window the rates above use. The multiple compares each post to this account's own median.
Recurring topics
The most frequent hashtags in the sampled posts. They describe what this account writes about; they are not a performance signal, and the catalog-wide breakdown on the hub shows how little hashtag count moves.
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Reading these numbers
A typical post picks up 216 interactions against 888K followers, an engagement rate of 0.024%. Measured over 64 original posts, its engagement rate beats 47% of 20,444 tracked accounts of a similar size, which puts it in the middle of its size range rather than at either end. Posts are seen about 24K times each, and 0.89% of those impressions turn into an interaction. That is about 2.73% of the follower count, which is the gap between an audience on paper and an audience in a timeline. Posting runs at about 5.4 posts a day over the last 30 days, though only 33% of days saw any activity at all. Most posts go out around 15:00 UTC, and Tuesday is the busiest day of the week. Of the 64 posts sampled, 45% carry an image or video and 28% link out. The account's strongest tracked post pulled 15K interactions, about 70x its own typical post. Recurring topics include #china, #freeminzin, #us.
- What is Michael McFaul's engagement rate on X?
- Michael McFaul (@McFaul) has an engagement rate of 0.024%, based on the median interactions across 64 original posts from the last 30 days against 888,394 followers. Replies, reposts and quote-posts of other people are excluded from that sample.
- Is that a good engagement rate?
- At 0.024%, Michael McFaul sits above the 25th percentile of the 204,583 accounts in this comparison. Those comparison accounts are all large ones, because our scanning cadence is weighted towards big accounts, so this is a ranking among peers of similar scale rather than a ranking across X.
- Does @McFaul have real engagement?
- Its engagement rate beats 47% of the tracked X accounts closest to it in follower count (20,444 accounts), which puts it in the middle of its size range group. Ranking inside a size band matters because engagement rate falls as accounts grow, so a raw rate would mostly re-measure the follower count. It is a starting point for a look at follower quality, not a verdict on it.
- When does @McFaul post?
- Most posts go out around 15:00 UTC, and Tuesday is its busiest day, at roughly 5.4 posts per day across the measured window.