Wendy’s chicken-nugget guy tops retweet list
NEW YORK — What do a former U.S. president, LeBron James and a guy who really, really likes chicken nuggets have in common? They all made the biggest splash on Twitter this year.
Twitter released its lists of 2017’s top trending people and topics on Tuesday, and they range from sports to politics to Korean boy bands. It was a year in which almost every sector of society was mashed together or clashing on social media, with the “Tweeter in Chief,” President Donald Trump, leading the way.
The top retweet came from fast-food lover Carter Wilkerson, who begged people to retweet him so that he could get a year’s worth of free chicken nuggets from Wendy’s. He fell short of the 18-million retweet bar set by the fast-food chain, but Wendy’s gave Wilkerson the nuggets anyway for the effort.
President Barack Obama, with 1.7 million retweets in August, was second. Obama took three of the top 10 spots on the list. Cleveland Cavaliers star Lebron James was seventh, with a tweet that criticized President Donald Trump over his decision to rescind Stephen Curry’s invitation to the White House to celebrate the Golden State Warrior’s NBA championship.
Curry said that he didn’t want to visit Trump in the White House; others on the team said the same thing.
Although Trump did not make the most retweeted list, he took the top spot for the most-tweeted-about elected world leader. He also came in No. 1 among tweeted U.S. elected officials, with Vice President Mike Pence and Speaker of the House Paul Ryan taking second and third. PBS’ special live coverage of Trump’s inauguration day was the most viewed livestream broadcast of the year.
With the media in Trump’s crosshairs, it was also in the sights of Twitter users. The top three tweeted news outlets were Fox News, CNN and The New York Times.
Some other highlights: #halamadrid was the top sports hashtag, supporting the Spanish soccer team Real Madrid; NFL was the top sports handle; and the mosttweeted-about music act was the Korean boy band BTS, also known as the Bangtan Boys.