President Trump just lost to former POTUS Barack Obama on his favorite social platform, with Twitter sharing its Top 10 most retweeted tweets of 2017 — and the commander-in-chief didn’t make the cut.
Obama, on the other hand, made the list twice, including a second-place finish for his Aug. 12 tweet in which he wrote: “No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin or his background or his religion …”
Stemming from South African President Nelson Mandela’s autobiography, the tweet came on the heels of the “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville. It’s since been retweeted a robust 1.7 million times, and is also the most “liked” tweet of all time, according to Twitter. (My personal record for RTs is a mere eight, if I remember correctly.)
"No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin or his background or his religion…" pic.twitter.com/InZ58zkoAm
— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) August 13, 2017
Obama nabbed the eighth most popular tweet of 2017, too, as he was leaving office in January.
“It’s been the honor of my life to serve you,” he tweeted. “You made me a better leader and a better man.”
It's been the honor of my life to serve you. You made me a better leader and a better man.
— President Obama (@POTUS44) January 20, 2017
Since President Trump likes to receive binders of favorable coverage, it should be pointed out he’s a far more active tweeter than his predecessor. His blurbs routinely grab more than 30,000 retweets, and he certainly doesn’t have an issue with volume: he continues to set personal records with each passing month. Trump’s top tweet of the year, according to Twitter, was his notorious CNN-wrestling post in July, which had more than 360,000 retweets.
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/881503147168071680
But even the most powerful men on earth couldn’t beat out Carter Wilkerson for 2017’s top retweet. Who, you might ask? The guy that tweeted at Wendy’s, asking how many retweets it would take for a year of free chicken nuggets. He came up short of the 18 million threshold set by Wendy’s (seems a bit greedy, frankly), but still pulled in the top spot with 3.6 million RTs. Chicken nuggets: bringing Twitter users together from both sides of the aisle.
HELP ME PLEASE. A MAN NEEDS HIS NUGGS pic.twitter.com/4SrfHmEMo3
— Carter Wilkerson (@carterjwm) April 6, 2017