Great honor, I think?  Mark Zuckerberg recently stated that “Donald J. Trump is Number 1 on Facebook.  Number 2 is P… https://t.co/KCu2oXV5pz — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) 1581723515000

WASHINGTON: Topping the social media sweepstakes and talking up his status may be as important as trade and tariffs to US President Donald Trump as he heads out to India next week. In an unexpected shot across the bow of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is himself an adept social media user, Trump claimed that he has the highest following on Facebook, followed by Modi, attributing the ranking to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg. “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!”  Trump tweeted suo motu.  It was not clear what caused him to tweet that claim. The claim may have some merit if one considers only political leaders and heads of government, but it does not withstand broader scrutiny.  The most followed Facebook account is that of Facebook itself, whose pages have 214 million followers, followed by Samsung at 159 million.  Among individuals, footballer Cristiano Ronaldo tops at 122 million, followed by Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg at 116 million.  Trump, with 27 million followers, doesn’t even feature in the Top 100.The US President does much better on Twitter, his favorite platform, coming in 9th with 73 million followers.  Prime Minister Modi ranks 18th with 53 million followers. The top following on Twitter though is for Trump's bete noire, former President Barack Obama , who has 113 million followers three years after demitting office.  He is followed by a raft of entertainers and sportspersons, including Justin Bieber (119m), Katy Perry (108m), Rihanna (96m), Taylor Swift (86m), Cristiano Ronaldo (83m), Lady Gaga (81m) and Ellen DeGeneres (79m).Trump is regarded – and regards himself – as something of a social media wizard although some surveys show that Americans think he tweets too much, and liberal pundits have excoriated him for spending too much time tweeting on unsecured phones and watching too much TV.  On the other hand, his aides and associates say the President sets the agenda through social media messaging and takes on his “fake news” critics, even at the expense of making his own spokespersons and communications team superfluous. While Trump’s tweets are now considered official statements of the President of the United States, he is prone to frequent gaffes and tasteless messages.  On Saturday morning, the President of the United States retweeted a post by someone showing a video clip of a city mayor who “excused himself to go & use the washroom in the middle of a meeting & forgot to switch off his mic on his tie.”  What followed was the audio of someone emitting loud farts in the bathroom. Trump fans found the tweet very funny and maintained that it showed the President has a sense of humor.  Others found it gross and another example of a President who has too much time on his hands.