Donald Trump Congratulated PM Modi For Facebook Popularity, But Claims He's Still Number One

US President Donald Trump¡¯s obsession with being the top influencer on social media has resurfaced yet again, as the POTUS has once more claimed himself to be ¡°number one on Facebook¡±. Interestingly, he did not just justify it with the number of followers on his account. Instead, Trump compared it to the followers of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and that, is where he might have gone a bit too far with the claims.

On Thursday, Trump delivered the commencement address at the Hope for Prisoners Graduation Ceremony in Las Vegas. In his address, he mentioned Prime Minister Narendra Modi to be number two on Facebook, further claiming that he has an advantage for such a huge following, a citizen count of ¡°1.5 billion people¡±.

Meanwhile, Trump stressed that he is the number one on Facebook despite having just a 350 million strong citizen count in America. Trump further claimed that the standings were recently told to him by none other than the Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

Interestingly enough, Trump mentioned an earlier call that he apparently made to the Indian Prime Minister, congratulating him on his Facebook ranking. "And I congratulated Prime Minister Modi. I said, "But, you know, you have 1.5 billion people. I have 350 million. You have an advantage," Trump said during his commencement address.

US President Donald Trump (Image: Reuters)

Now we are not too sure as to what Trump means by being the first on Facebook. If it is based on the number of likes that his page has, Trump¡¯s current number stands at 26 million. In contrast, the official page of Narendra Modi counts 44 million likes at the time of writing. Average engagement on the two pages are also corresponding to these likes.

So as far as we can figure, Trump is definitely not the ¡°first¡± on Facebook. To think of it, Trump and Modi are both far from the top followed account of soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo which counts 122 million likes on Facebook to date.

The claims are not exclusive to Facebook, as Trump even believes that he is the number one on Twitter, another self-acclaim that he made at the commencement address - "The head of Facebook Mr Zuckerberg came in three weeks ago. He said, 'Congratulations.' I said, 'On what?' He said, 'You're number one on Facebook.' I said, 'That's cool.' Number one on Twitter too."

Again, Trump¡¯s total follower count on Twitter stands at 72.7 million, far from the top followed account of Barack Obama which is 113.2 million followers strong. Trump's count is in fact less than many celebrities, with the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo, Rihanna, Justin Beiber and a few others being on the list.

Trump¡¯s perception of him being on top of every social media platform is not newfound. Before this speech, Trump has made the same claim on radio talk shows, interviews as well as on Twitter, of being told by Zuckerberg that he tops Facebook and that ¡°Number 2 is Prime Minister Modi of India.¡±

Great honor, I think? Mark Zuckerberg recently stated that ¡°Donald J. Trump is Number 1 on Facebook. Number 2 is Prime Minister Modi of India.¡± Actually, I am going to India in two weeks. Looking forward to it!

¡ª Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 14, 2020

Well, as long as there is an ambiguity on what it means to be number 1 on Facebook, Trump¡¯s claims might be right in his own way. That being said, for the rest of us, he is definitely not the ¡°first¡± in the game and still has a long way to go to even compete with his Indian counterpart.