Touché, Hillary Clinton, touché. The country’s first female Democratic nominee just raised her Twitter game — at the expense of her Republican rival, Donald Trump.
Earlier today, Trump, the Grand Master of Twitter Tirades, took both Clinton and President Barack Obama to task in his customary, confrontational manner. Trump’s tweet included his penchant for derogatory nicknames — in this case his pet name for Clinton “crooked Hillary.”
His post implied that Obama only endorsed Clinton because she would continue his policies. The tweet has been retweeted more than 35,000 times at this point, a modest figure for Trump.
Obama just endorsed Crooked Hillary. He wants four more years of Obama—but nobody else does!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 9, 2016
Neither the prospective Republican nominee nor perhaps anyone on Twitter, could have predicted Clinton’s understated yet unstoppable response. Utilizing a lesser-known meme to great effect, she simply offered three hilarious words of advice — and Twitter lapped it up.
Delete your account. https://t.co/Oa92sncRQY
— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) June 9, 2016
Clinton’s tweet informing Trump to do away with his Twitter profile has now been retweeted nearly 450,000 times, including a whopping 300,000 in the span of just six hours. That makes it the most popular tweet of the campaign season thus far, and Clinton’s most popular tweet of all time by a huge margin.
At this rate, it could even outdo Obama’s tweet celebrating his re-election in 2012, though it needs a fair amount of juice to reach that milestone.
Give credit where it’s due, however. RNC Chairman Reince Priebus returned Clinton’s serve with a great volley of his own:
.@HillaryClinton If anyone knows how to use a delete key, it's you.
— Reince Priebus (@Reince) June 9, 2016
The “delete your account” putdown is a delicious Twitter tradition for anyone who wants to wryly take someone to task over a particularly embarrassing tweet. Give the lady her due; she deployed it with the utmost efficiency — like a poison arrow to the very heart of Trump’s Twitter failings.
Amid the Clinton fanfare, users did what they do best: Tweet out their own memes and GIFs in response to a viral tweet. And Trump returned serve with his own response, saying what the impartial onlooker may have been thinking: Was it really Clinton who thought of that excellent retort anyway?
How long did it take your staff of 823 people to think that up–and where are your 33,000 emails that you deleted? https://t.co/gECLNtQizQ
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 9, 2016
Clinton’s push to connect with younger voters online has often come across as out of character. Throughout the primary season, the Democrat has roped in her celebrity friends to manage her Instagram accounts, done the dab dance with Ellen, and appeared on (arguably) the most millennial show of all time, Broad City. This display — some would call it desperate — has attracted the disdain of even her most ardent supporters, including Obama, who described her attempts at attracting the youth vote as the equivalent of a “relative signing up for Facebook.”
Well, Mr. President, It turns out that this “relative” has finally gotten the hang of Twitter.
Updated by Jeremy Kaplan to include replies by Reince Priebus and Donald Trump.
