President Trump likes to talk about how popular he is and how much he is liked (plus, did you know he won an election?). So surely the president is none too happy today to realize that LeBron James’ tweet insulting him is way more popular than anything he has ever written. Turns out, the basketball superstar is better at uniting Americans than the commander in chief.
It all started when Trump took to Twitter on Saturday morning to uninvite (although they weren’t actually every formally invited) the Golden State Warriors from visiting the White House to commemorate the championship. Trump specifically mentioned Stephen Curry’s public reluctance to go to the White House: “Going to the White House is considered a great honor for a championship team.Stephen Curry is hesitating,therefore invitation is withdrawn!”
Less than three hours later, LeBron James took to Twitter and hit back, calling Trump “u bum” and adding that “going to White House was a great honor until you showed up!”
As of Sunday afternoon, James’ message had been retweeted more than 620,000 times. That is way more than the basketball star’s previously most popular post that got a paltry 111,820 retweets (“I’m not MJ, I’m LJ”).
James didn’t just beat his own record though. His “u bum” tweet is also way more popular than anything Trump has ever written in his favorite social media platform. Trump’s most popular post on Twitter was his all-caps celebration of his election victory: “TODAY WE MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!” That Nov. 8, 2017 message got retweeted 335,657 times.
A few hours after his tweet, James, who was a supporter of Hillary Clinton, released a video explaining his position. “I think it’s basically at a point where I’m a little frustrated, man, because this guy that we’ve put in charge has tried to divide us once again” James said via his digital company platform Uninterrupted. “Obviously we all know what happened with Charlottesville and the divide that caused. Now it’s hit home more for me because he’s now using sports as the platform to try and divide us.”
