The 'American Dream," Rep. Joseph Kennedy III's damp rebuttal and Rep. Nancy Pelosi's sour demeanor were top Twitter topics on the night President Donald Trump gave a State of the Union speech that broke Twitter records.
Twitter users also teed off on Trump's claims that unemployment among African-Americans had hit new lows during his administration, about the president's call for immigration reform.
Twitter on Tuesday night, after Trump's speech to a joint session of Congress concluded, said that there were 4.5 million tweets using the hashtags #SOTU or #JointSession, "surpassing last year's record of 3 million tweets."
Listen First Media, a social analytics firm, said that there were 2.69 million tweets mentioning Trump during the State of the Union address, "generating 36.8 billion potential impressions" among users of the Twitter messaging platform.
"Those tweeting about the State of the Union were predominantly white males — 82 percent white and 54 percent male," Listen First said. And 65 percent were members of the millennial generation or primarily young adults.
The firm said Trump's line in the speech about the American Dream — "There has never been a better time to start living the American Dream" — was a popular theme on Twitter, albeit one that divided users.
"Viewers also have polarizing views on Joe Kennedy's Democratic response to the SOTU," Listen First said.
"His looks came into play, with many commenting on 'the Blistex issue," the firm said. That was in reference to the fact that the Massachusetts Democrat appeared to be either sweating around his lips or to have applied too much lip gloss.
Many tweets focused on the decidedly unhappy face of Pelosi, the former speaker of the House who represents a San Francisco district, as she listened to Trump's speech.
Trump saying that African-American unemployment had hit its lowest rate was seized on by his supporters as a cudgel to bash Democrats, while critics said Trump was taking credit for a trend that began seven years ago, long before he took office.
Listen First said that another top theme on Twitter was the criticism of Trump's plans to tighten immigration policies, while backers of the president applauded him.