WASHINGTON • United States President Donald Trump continued to dominate Twitter this year even as former president Barack Obama's tweets were more liked, but both were blown away by one man's quest for free chicken nuggets.

Twitter revealed the year's most-liked and retweeted tweets on Tuesday, reflecting how a nation bitterly divided between Republicans and Democrats is likewise split on social media.

Mr Trump, whose 44 million followers of @realDonaldTrump rank him 21st on Twitter, was the most-tweeted-about world leader and US elected official.

Likewise @FoxNews, the conservative cable news channel, was the top tweeted news outlet. CNN, which Mr Trump derides as fake news, was second to Fox.

Mr Obama's @BarackObama - ranked as the third most-followed Twitter account behind @katyperry and @justinbieber - posted the most popular tweet. There were nearly 4.6 million likes for the Nelson Mandela quote - "No one is born hating another person because of the colour of his skin or his background or his religion." - with a picture of Mr Obama greeting a diverse group of babies.

It was also the second most-retweeted item at 1.7 million times.

No president could compete with free nuggets, however. A 16-year-old named Carter Wilkerson, @carterjwm, garnered 3.6 million retweets in his campaign for a free lifetime supply of nuggets from Wendy's.

He came up short of Wendy's target of 18 million retweets for a lifetime supply, but the effort earned him one year's worth and a US$100,000 (S$135,000) donation in his name to the Wendy's-linked Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption.

REUTERS