And finally…it’s my ball and you’re no playing

Valerie Plame Wilson, whose identity as a CIA operative was leaked by an official in George W Bush’s administration in 2003 in an effort to discredit her husband, Joe Wilson, a former diplomat who criticised Mr Bush’s decision to invade Iraq, launched the fund-raiser last week, tweeting:

https://twitter.com/ValeriePlame/status/898610808527011840?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=http%3A%2F%2Fhome.bt.com%2Fnews%2Flatest-news%2Fhelp-me-buy-twitter-to-kick-trump-off-says-ex-cia-agent-11364206558284

The GoFundMe page for her bid says US president Mr Trump’s tweets “damage the country and put people in harm’s way”.

As news spread this morning of the scheme set in motion by Ms Wilson, who left the CIA in 2005, the page had received less than $6,000 (£4,700) of her billion-dollar (£781m) goal.

However, with news of her plan going viral in today donations have picked up with the current total now approaching $40,000.

Ms Wilson wrote on the fund-raiser’s GoFundMe page that she hoped to raise enough money to buy a controlling interest of Twitter stock.

If Ms Wilson were to hit her billion-dollar goal, she would still fall far short of gaining a controlling interest in the company.

As of Wednesday, a majority stake would cost about six billion dollars (£4.7bn).

If she does not have enough to purchase a majority of shares, she says she will explore options to buy “a significant stake” and champion the proposal to block Mr Trump at Twitter’s annual shareholder meeting.

A one-billion stake would make her Twitter’s largest shareholder and give her a very strong position to exert influence on the company.

However, the White House has dismissed the crusade, with press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders saying that the low total so far suggested that the American people liked the Republican president’s use of the social media platform.

“Her ridiculous attempt to shut down his first amendment is the only clear violation and expression of hate and intolerance in this equation,” she said.

Twitter declined to comment on Ms Wilson’s campaign.