Pull the live X (Twitter) Trending board as ranked JSON without X developer credentials or pay-per-use post reads. Pair each topic with Google News and YouTube growth to separate one-day noise from durable spikes.
Live data as of 2026-08-12
X trending topics are available through Trends MCP without an X developer account and without paying $0.005 per post read. On August 12, 2026 at 06:01:42 UTC, get_top_trends with type "X (Twitter) Trending" returned 25 ranked topics, led by Crowley, taekook, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and jungkook. Follow-up get_growth calls on Google News and YouTube quantify whether those strings are still climbing after they hit the board. The free tier covers 100 requests per month across every source.
From the Trends MCP scan of August 12, 2026 (as_of_ts 2026-08-12T06:01:42 UTC), the X (Twitter) Trending board returned 25 rows at limit 25 and offset 0. Crowley held rank 1, taekook rank 2, Milwaukee rank 3, Wisconsin rank 4, and jungkook rank 5. Hashtag rows included #WWENXT at rank 6 and #DWCS at rank 22. Sports and politics names filled much of the middle of the board: Flanagan at 7, Mike Lindell at 8, Evan Phillips at 9, Kornacki at 10, Mookie at 11, Zilla Fatu at 12, Max Muncy at 13, Blake Snell at 14, and Alex Call at 15.
| Rank | Topic |
|---|---|
| 1 | Crowley |
| 2 | taekook |
| 3 | Milwaukee |
| 4 | Wisconsin |
| 5 | jungkook |
| 6 | #WWENXT |
| 7 | Flanagan |
| 8 | Mike Lindell |
| 9 | Evan Phillips |
| 10 | Kornacki |
| 11 | Mookie |
| 12 | Zilla Fatu |
Growth follow-ups used the August 8, 2026 weekly points. Crowley rose 66.67% over 7 days on Google News (recent index 5.0 vs baseline 3.0) and 25.0% over 30 days (baseline 4.0). Milwaukee rose 27.27% over 7 days on Google News (56.0 from 44.0) and 40.0% over both 14 days and 30 days (baseline 40.0). Flanagan rose 14.29% over 7 days (8.0 from 7.0) and 60.0% over 30 days (baseline 5.0). jungkook fell 51.22% over 7 days on Google News (20.0 from 41.0) while still up 42.86% over 30 days (baseline 14.0).
The official X path for new developers buys credits and pays per resource. Reading posts at roughly $0.005 each adds up quickly when the job is only "what is trending," not "fetch every reply." Trends MCP isolates the ranked board behind one typed call. The type string is case-sensitive: "X (Twitter) Trending". Shorter labels fail.
{
"type": "X (Twitter) Trending",
"limit": 25,
"offset": 0
}
That response on August 12, 2026 carried count 25 and the as_of_ts stamp above. No X bearer token sits in the request. For the credit model and Enterprise floor, see the X API pricing comparison. For the feed-focused reference page, see the X Twitter Trending Topics API.
Board rank alone does not prove a topic will still matter tomorrow. On August 8, 2026 growth points, WWENXT (hashtag stripped) rose 83.33% over 7 days on YouTube (index 11.0 from 6.0) while falling 42.11% over 14 days (baseline 19.0) and 38.89% over 30 days (baseline 18.0). That pattern reads as a short spike sitting under a cooler monthly baseline. Zilla Fatu rose 75.0% over 7 days, 14 days, and 30 days on YouTube, with the same recent index 7.0 against baseline 4.0 on every window, which is a steadier climb from a low base.
Google News caught the Wisconsin cluster more cleanly than YouTube for place names. Milwaukee's recent Google News index of 56.0 on August 8, 2026 is an order of magnitude above Crowley's 5.0, even though Crowley held X rank 1 on August 12. Rank order on X and absolute news index are different instruments. Run both before quoting a "breakout."
Two follow-up shapes cover most alert workflows. Strip leading # characters before the keyword. Prefer google news for politics and local names; prefer youtube for entertainment and wrestling tags.
{
"keyword": "Crowley",
"source": "google news",
"percent_growth": ["7D", "14D", "30D"]
}
{
"keyword": "WWENXT",
"source": "youtube",
"percent_growth": ["7D", "14D", "30D"]
}
Crowley's Google News series on August 12, 2026 pulls held 261 data points with all 3 windows successful. WWENXT's YouTube series also held 261 points with all 3 windows successful. When google search returned data_unavailable during the same session, google news and youtube still answered for the same topic strings.
The board is a ranked list of strings, not a firehose of posts, sentiment scores, or author graphs. As_of_ts can sit minutes behind wall-clock time; quote the stamp. Zero-baseline growth prints as 999999% with a low-quality warning in spirit even when the status field says success. Mike Lindell on August 8, 2026 showed Google News recent index 2.0 against a 0.0 seven-day baseline; the usable figure is 2.0, and the 14-day window showed a cleaner -50.0% move (2.0 from 4.0).
Hashtags and fan-ship portmanteaus often need shortening. #WWENXT became WWENXT for YouTube. taekook may need a youtube or google news check under both the portmanteau and the member name; jungkook alone already produced a clean Google News series with recent index 20.0 on August 8, 2026.
Trends MCP starts at 100 requests per month on the free plan, then Starter at $19 per month for 1,000 requests, Pro at $49 for 5,000, and Business at $199 for 25,000. Check current pricing before locking a budget. That envelope covers the X board plus Google News and YouTube follow-ups under one key. Official X pay-per-use remains the path when the product needs raw post bodies, user lookups, or filtered streams. For search-recent cost math on that path, see X API search recent posts costs. For the broader social feed set, see the social media trends API.
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