Former U.S president breaks Twitter record

Barack Obama’s response to the

Over the weekend, the former president made history with his powerful reactions to the tragedy (he responded with three tweets). These earned him THE most-liked tweet in Twitter history.

The first record-breaking tweet in the series of three was a condemnation of the attack.

He quoted the late South African president Nelson Mandela, writing, “No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin or his background or his religion…”

This was posted on Monday, August 13, 2017. By the next day, it had gained over 2 million likes, making it the second most liked tweet of all time. Mashable reports that this was confirmed by a Twitter spokesperson on Wednesday.

That Tuesday night, Obama’s tweet was liked 2,705,809 times at approximately 10:07 p.m. ET. This pushed him to the top and set a new all-time record.

Obama’s powerful tweet was accompanied by quotes from Mandela’s autobiographical Long Walk to Freedom.

The second tweet read: “People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love."

“For love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite,” was the third.

These two garnered over a million likes each!

Meanwhile, Obama’s tweet has pushed Ariana Grande‘s 2017 response to the deadly Manchester bombing attack at her concert to the second place.

Grande’s tweet received 2,703,448 likes, while Ellen DeGeneres’ famous 2014 Oscars selfie with 2,418,912 likes holds the third most-liked tweet spot.

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However, a Twitter spokesman has revealed that Obama’s tweet may be the most liked, but it is certainly not the most retweeted.

The first place for this title goes to Ariana Grande, then Louis Tomlinson, Ellen DeGeneres, and the viral plea for Wendy’s chicken nuggets.

Obama’s is the fifth most retweeted tweet ever. These two new records proof that no longer being president is clearly not stopping him from continuing to make history.