clock menu more-arrow no yes mobile

Filed under:

Obama had the most popular tweets of the year, not Trump

Sad!

President Obama smiles and claps behind a podium at a campaign rally for Hillary Clinton. Scott Eisen / Getty

Twitter came out on Tuesday with its annual list of the most popular tweets, moments and hashtags of 2017.

As expected, a U.S. president was responsible for many of the most “Liked” and retweeted posts of the year. Perhaps unexpectedly, that president was Barack Obama, not Donald Trump, who has claimed the title “The Twitter President” for his constant tweeting.

Obama was responsible for three of the Top 10 most retweeted tweets of the year, including the second-most retweeted post of 2017, which he sent the weekend of the Unite the Right white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Va.

Two other tweets from the @POTUS44 official account, which was originally the @POTUS account Obama held as President, were in the Top 10.

The teenager who tried to get a free year’s supply of chicken nuggets from Wendy’s was the most retweeted tweet of the year.

Obama also had two of the three most “Liked” tweets of the year, including the tweet above which came it at No. 1. It has more than 4.5 million “Likes.” The third-most “Liked” tweet of the year: Obama’s shoutout to Senator John McCain after it became public that McCain was diagnosed with cancer.

Trump was still a big part of the year on Twitter despite being absent from the list of most-retweeted posts. (Twitter only listed the top three most “Liked” tweets, and Trump wasn’t on that list either.)

PBS’s live coverage of Trump’s inauguration was the most-watched livestream of the year, and Trump was also the most tweeted about “elected world leader,” ahead of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.

In case it wasn’t obvious, Twitter was full of political animosity in 2017. The year can be summarized by the four most-popular U.S. activism hashtags:

  1. #Resist
  2. #MAGA
  3. #ImpeachTrump
  4. #TrumpTrain

A few other “winners” from 2017:

Most tweeted about TV show: “Game of Thrones”

Most tweeted about movie: “Wonder Woman”

Most retweeted athlete tweet: LeBron James calling Trump a “bum.”

Here are the Top 10 most retweeted posts of the year:

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

10.


This article originally appeared on Recode.net.

Sign up for the newsletter Sign up for Vox Recommends

Get curated picks of the best Vox journalism to read, watch, and listen to every week, from our editors.