Twitter revealed the year's most liked and retweeted tweets on Tuesday, reflecting how a nation bitterly divided between Republicans and Democrats is likewise split on social media.
Trump, whose 44 million followers of @realDonaldTrump rank him 21st on Twitter, was the most tweeted about world leader and U.S. elected official.
Likewise @FoxNews, the conservative cable news channel, was the top tweeted news outlet, led by @SeanHannity, the host who is a friend and ally of the president.
Obama was also well-represented.
The former president, whose @BarackObama ranked as the third-most-followed Twitter account behind @katyperry and @justinbieber, posted the most popular tweet: nearly 4.6 million likes for the Nelson Mandela quote, "No one is born hating another person because of the colour of his skin or his background or his religion," with a picture of Obama greeting a diverse group of babies through a window.
That was also the second most retweeted item at 1.7 million times.
No president could compete with free nuggets, however. A 16-year-old named Carter Wilkerson, @carterjwm, garnered 3.6 million retweets in his campaign for a year's supply of nuggets from Wendy's.
He came up short of Wendy's target of 18 million retweets, but Wendy's still gave him the nuggets and a $100,000 donation in his name to the Wendy's-linked Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption.
The top four new U.S. political accounts were some of Trump's most forceful critics, led by @PreetBharara, the former federal prosecutor he fired. Next came @SallyQYates, the former acting attorney general who was also fired by Trump.
Third was former Obama adviser Ben Rhodes, @brhodes, followed by Obama's former official photographer, @PeteSouza, who has tweeted flattering pictures of Obama during some of Trump most criticized moments.
White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders, @SHSanders45, rounded out the top five.
Other results underscored the punch and counterpunch of politics.
Right behind @FoxNews on the top tweeted news outlet list was @CNN, which Trump derides as fake news.
The most tweeted activist hashtag was #Resist, as in resist Trump, followed by #MAGA for Trump's slogan Make America Great Again.
Among national leaders, Trump was followed by @narendramodi of India, @NicolasMaduro of Venezuela and @RT_Erdogan of Turkey.
(Reporting by Daniel Trotta; Editing by Daniel Wallis and Andrew Hay)
© Thomson Reuters 2017
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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