The White House scored the most popular tweet of the week with a snarky thread clapping back at congressional Republicans who criticized President Joe Biden’s student loan forgiveness plan despite having had business pandemic aid loans forgiven, a rare viral victory for a major institutional account on the platform.
The tweet starting the thread, which targeted Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), was the most popular on Twitter this week, according to data collected by social media tracking firm NewsWhip.
As of Saturday morning the tweet has attracted nearly 1.1 million interactions, including more than 275,000 retweets and almost 800,000 likes.
The White House’s post quote-tweeted a video in which Greene called student loan forgiveness unfair, adding a message that simply read: “Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene had $183,504 in PPP loans forgiven.”
The White House Twitter account followed up by pointing out how much in Paycheck Protection Program loans were forgiven for five other Republican congressmen: Reps. Vern Buchanan (Fla.), Markwayne Mullin (Okla.), Kevin Hern (Okla.), Mike Kelly (Penn.) and Matt Gaetz (Fla.).
Greene’s $183,504 in forgiven loans was the lowest of the cohort, according to the White House, while Buchanan led the way with $2.3 million in canceled debt.
The White House did not respond to a request for comment from Forbes regarding whose idea it was to make the tweet thread, but the Washington Post reported there’s been a push among White House officials for a spunkier social media presence. The newspaper noted one recent hire in the Office of Digital Strategy is Megan Coyne, who was known for tweeting zingers while running the New Jersey state government Twitter account.