Donald Trump Stops Tweeting Momentarily to Issue a Rare "Like" of Rihanna Quote

The U.S. president had previously avoided liking anything on Twitter for more than a year and a half.

By Corinne Heller Jun 12, 2019 4:39 PMTags
Watch: How Rihanna Sparked Donald Trump's 1st Twitter 'Like' in Years

Donald Trump took a few minutes out of his schedule of tweeting continuously this week to "like" something: A tweet about...Rihanna.

The U.S. President, who last "liked" something on Twitter a year and a half ago and has apparently "liked" only eight tweets ever, issued his presidential Twitter seal of approval of writer and podcaster Heben Nigatu's tweet highlighting a quote the singer made in a June 10 interview with Interview magazine. (That, or Trump's social media editor thought they were tweeting from their personal account.)

Rihanna had said, "It's only the last couple years that I started to realize that you need to make time for yourself, because your mental health depends on it. If you're not happy, you're not going to be happy even doing things that you love doing. It'd feel like a chore. I never want work to feel like a chore. My career is my purpose, and it should never feel like anything other than a happy place. I've made little things a big deal, like going for a walk or going to the grocery store. I got into a new relationship, and it matters to me. It was like, 'I need to make time for this.'"

"Just like I nurture my businesses, I need to nurture this as well," she continued. "I'll shut things down for two days, three days at a time. On my calendar we now have the infamous 'P,' which means personal days. This is a new thing."

Rihanna, who is not a fan of Trump, has not commented.

Francois Mori/AP/Shutterstock

Nigatu was pretty shook by the President linking her tweet.

"WHAT IS HAPPENING," she tweeted on Wednesday.

Speaking of work-balance, in February, Axios reported that over the past three months, Trump spent around 60% of his scheduled time, or almost 300 hours, in unstructured "Executive Time." The outlet said that he typically spends the first five hours of his days in his White House residence, watching TV, reading newspapers, and responding to what he sees and reads by phoning aides, friends, Congressmen, and other officials.

"The time in the morning is a mix of residence time and Oval Office time but he always has calls with staff, Hill members, cabinet members and foreign leaders during this time," White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told Axios in response. "The President is one of the hardest workers I've ever seen and puts in long hours and long days nearly every day of the week all year long. It has been noted by reporters many times that they wish he would slow down because they sometimes have trouble keeping up with him."

On Tuesday, Trump posted 18 tweets—including 13 between 7 and 10 a.m. ET.

On Wednesday, between 8 and 9 a.m. ET, Trump posted four tweets.