The Margin: Trump’s ‘positive for COVID-19’ tweet is his most ‘liked’ post ever

By 5:30 a.m. Eastern, the tweet had hit that milestone with more than 273,000 retweets and 344,000 quote tweets (a retweet with a comment attached), Axios reported, along with 834,000 likes.

But by noon Eastern, those figures had ballooned to more than 377,000 retweets, 461,000 quote tweets — or, shared more than 839,000 times in total — and 1.4 million likes, and counting. And those numbers continued to climb on Friday afternoon.

It should be noted that a “like” does not necessarily mean that Twitter TWTR, -1.24%  users were glad that the president had tested positive for a virus that has killed 1.02 million people globally. Indeed, many of the more than 461,000 comments featured people wishing the First Couple a speedy recovery. (There were also snarky responses and questioning of the president’s response to the pandemic, however, including references to his shifting statements on the coronavirus.)

White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows said on Friday morning that Trump was showing “mild symptoms” and was in “good spirits,” while Trump’s Twitter account was quiet. As Trump traveled to Walter Reed hospital for observation Friday evening, more than 17 hours after announcing his diagnosis, he sent out a video message and said, “I think I’m doing very well.”

Here’s what we know about the president’s diagnosis so far, as well as the questions it raises about the November election and national security.

Prior to his test-result tweet, Trump’s most liked tweet was a 2019 post sharing news that A$ AP Rocky had been released from prison and was on his way home to the United States from Sweden. That tweet pulled in some 310,000 retweets and more than 818,000 likes.

“It was a Rocky Week,” he said back then.