LeBron James Tweet Calling Trump A ‘Bum’ Gets 1 Million Likes In Single Day, Most-Liked Tweet Ever By Athlete
LeBron James took to Twitter on Saturday to call Donald Trump a “bum” and slam the president for rescinding a White House invitation to Stephen Curry, quickly making it among the top-liked tweets of all time.
James spoke up early on Saturday after Trump’s remarks slamming the Golden State Warriors guard. Curry had publicly opposed Trump and said that he would not join his team in visiting the White House, which is a tradition for championship winning teams.
That appeared to anger Trump, who took to Twitter on Saturday morning to inform Curry — and apparently the rest of the Warriors — that they were no longer invited to the White House, ABC News noted.
This drew an immediate backlash, with LeBron James one of the first to speak out. Stephen Curry’s on-court rival responded to Trump on Twitter, calling him a “bum” and noting that Curry had already announced his intention not to visit the White House before Trump rescinded the invitation.
That tweet went viral almost immediately, and by early Sunday had 1.25 million likes. That placed his tweet as the No. 15 most-liked of all time and climbing quickly, making it the most-liked ever by an athlete.
The list of top tweets is made up almost entirely of those attacking Donald Trump or offering a response on issues he has raised. The most-liked tweet of all time came just a few weeks ago from Barack Obama in response to the racially motivated violence in Charlottesville that claimed the life of a woman. As Donald Trump was slammed for failing to condemn white supremacists who sparked the violence, Obama offered a more peaceful reaction.
"No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin or his background or his religion…" pic.twitter.com/InZ58zkoAm
— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) August 13, 2017
U bum @StephenCurry30 already said he ain't going! So therefore ain't no invite. Going to White House was a great honor until you showed up!
— LeBron James (@KingJames) September 23, 2017
Many pointed out that Fox News appears to have influenced Donald Trump’s decision to dis-invite Curry and the Golden State Warriors. Trump’s controversial tweet came just minutes after the program Fox and Friends ran a segment critical of Curry for his speaking out against the president.
"Fox & Friends" covered this story at 8:24am. Banner: "Curry Wants to Skip White House Visit." Trump tweeted at 8:45. https://t.co/hVN7qnRwyy
— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) September 23, 2017
LeBron James followed up his viral tweet against Donald Trump with a longer explanation in a video uploaded to the site Uninterrupted.com, elaborating that he would not let Trump use the world of sports to divide Americans.
“He’s now using sports as the platform to try to divide us,” James said. “For him to try to use this platform to divide us even more is not something I can stand for and is not something I can be quiet about.”
There are apparently many who agree. The tweet from LeBron James calling Donald Trump a “bum” was moving steadily up the list of most-liked tweets of all time, on pace to reach the top 10 on Sunday.
[Featured Image by Ezra Shaw/Getty Images]
