President Donald Trump is doing everything to erase the legacy of his predecessor such as pushing for a repeal of the Affordable Care Act. Whenever the real estate billionaire feels he has a better approval rating than former President Barack Obama, he immediately tweets it, although he often uses dubious surveys to make him look better than the 44th president of the U.S.
Even in Twitter use, he could not beat Obama, according to a previous comparison. The Virginia violence, which is another dark chapter in the history of America under a Trump administration, was yet another opportunity for Obama to shine while Obama harvests hate for refusing to denounce white supremacists, neo-Nazis, and KKK the first two days.
Obama breaks Twitter record
BBC reported that after the Charlottesville incident, Obama posted three tweets. The first tweet quoted former South African President Nelson Mandela which he accompanied a picture of himself smiling with children from different races. Since he posted it on Aug. 13, the tweet broke records on the microblogging site with more than 3.2 million likes, was retweeted more than 1.3 million times, and elicited comments almost 51,000 times.
The tweet created a Twitter milestone at 01:07 GMT when it overtook the tweet posted by singer Ariana Grande who expressed condolences after the Manchester bomb attack in May. In the three tweets, Obama quoted a passage from "The Long Walk To Freedom," the autobiography of Mandela.
The photo was taken in 2011 when Obama visited a day care center in Bethesda, Maryland.
Did not abandon public life
The Washington Post noted that Obama, unlike other American presidents, did not abandon public life after he left the White House. Since January 2017, he had tweeted comments about the terrorist attack in Manchester, England, the brain cancer diagnosis of Sen.
John McCain, and the Virginia violence.
In terms of retweets, the tweet by Obama became the seventh most retweeted tweet in the microblogging site's history, according to Favstar, a tweet tracking site.
In contrast, Trump's response to the Charlottesville incident was controversial which had led to the resignation from the American Manufacturing Council of four CEOs, so far.
Yet, the combative president used Twitter to hit Merck CEO Kenneth Frazier twice after he quit the council.
The only tweets that Obama posted about the Virginia violence were the three when he used Mandela's lines. He did not comment on the White House statement or criticize Trump.
