President Donald Trump’s Twitter message about North Korea’s communist leader Kim Jong Un on Nov. 11 spread like wildfire on the social media platform, becoming the third most retweeted message Trump has ever sent.
The message’s combination of ambiguity, humor, playful confrontation, and intrigue seems to have inspired both the president’s supporters and detractors to share the message with the world.
#10 — The Global Warming Tweet
104,633 retweetsOnly two of Trump’s top 10 tweets were sent years before he ran for president. In 2012, he cast doubt on the theory of global warming.
Much maligned at the time, the tweet has aged well, since mainstream media has abandoned the “global warming” term as evidence surfaced to the contrary. Mainstream media outlets now use the more ambiguous “climate change” term.
#9 — The Melania Speech Tweet
114,131 retweets as of Nov. 13, 2017Melania Trump, now the First Lady of the United States, gave a speech at the Republican National Convention on July 18, 2016, when her husband was running for president.
Melania’s speech showed the world a more personal perspective of Trump. But the speech quickly became the subject of controversy when it was discovered that parts of it closely resembled Michelle Obama’s speech at the 2008 Democratic National Convention.
Two days after the speech, Trump sent a tweet that deflected the scrutiny of the speech to the more substantial problems of his opponent, Hillary Clinton.
#8 — The “covfefe” Tweet
127,507 retweets before deletionPerhaps one of the most mysterious of Trump’s tweets is the famous “covfefe” message. The president sent the cryptic Tweet late one night in May but did not send a follow-up message to correct the spelling of “covfefe” or explain the meaning behind the tweet.
The message left journalists, experts, and the Twitter-sphere at large scratching their heads and spawned endless theories into its meaning. The following morning, Trump didn’t make it any easier for those struggling with the mystery after he tweeted the following:
#7 The Happy New Year Tweet
136,040 retweets as of Nov. 13, 2017Trump can make a New Year’s greeting viral. The president’s New Year message embraced both his followers and his foes in a way that inspired more than 136,000 retweets.
#6 The Electoral College Tweet
153,993 retweets as of Nov. 13, 2017Trump’s 2012 tweet about the U.S. Electoral College is the only other message on the top 10 that the president sent years before he was elected.
#5 Twitter Fight With Hillary Clinton
159,041 retweets as of Nov. 13, 2017Trump’s fifth most popular Twitter message was the outcome of a Twitter war of words with Hillary Clinton. The sequence went as follows:
#4 The Victory Tweet
212,828 retweets as of Nov. 13, 2017Trump sent a single message on the day after he won the presidential election. The tweet reflected one of the central themes of his campaign and called for unity after a divisive election.
#3 The Kim Jong Un Tweet
253,509 retweets as of Nov. 13, 2017#2 The Election Day Tweet
333,089 retweets as of Nov. 13, 2017Trump sent an early morning tweet on election day consisting of only six words. It remains his second most retweeted message.
#1 The #FraudNewsCNN Meme Tweet
364,455 retweets as of Nov. 13, 2017Trump’s most popular tweet to date features a meme video of a wrestling match. It encapsulates the president’s groundbreaking use of social media to galvanize his followers, delegitimize his critics, rile up his opponents and make just about everyone laugh.
The tweet spawned media coverage and quickly became an internet sensation. CNN later located the person who made the video and threatened to release his personal details to the public, a move that quickly backfired.
