Why Did Trump Like a Tweet About Rihanna? An Investigation

Donald Trump liked a post on Twitter last night for the first time in forever, and it was about Her Majesty Miss Rihanna—this is perhaps one of the only relevant things Donald Trump has ever done. But it is also among the most perplexing. The tweet was a screenshot of an Interview magazine conversation between Sarah Paulson and Rihanna, posted by a writer named Heben Nigatu with the message, “Every new Rihanna interview makes me grow stronger. We stan a work/life balance queen!!!” The Trump Alert Twitter account—which tracks posts, likes, unfollows, and follows of the entire Trump clan—reported that he liked it 12 hours ago, at approximately 1 a.m., after a tweet tirade about the Obama administration—to which the only appropriate response is “Come again??”

Firstly Rihanna openly dislikes Donald Trump. She has called the U.S. Border Patrol’s actions under his zero-tolerance policy terrorism; she attended the 2017 Women’s March and dabbed in front of Trump Tower; she deployed legal action to stop him from playing “Don’t Stop the Music” at rallies. From that last one we can reasonably assume that Trump actually knows that Rihanna is not his fan. So what is he doing liking a tweet about her work-life balance during a late-night Fox News binge?! From Nigatu, a writer at Desus & Mero, who certainly hates Trump even more?

One theory (what’s the opposite of a fan theory, a hater theory? A we-can’t-wait-to-impeach-you theory?) that emerged as the internet tried to grapple with this news is that first daughter Ivanka Trump forgot to sign out of his account, if she has access to it and perhaps logs in to try to occasionally make his addled speech sound like it came from a person not suffering from dementia. Ivanka has tweeted about Rihanna before—a few times in 2010 and 2011, once about Rihanna wearing Ivanka Trump brand “jewels” for a photo shoot and another time about Rihanna saying the Trump Waikiki was among her favorite hotels (she has likely changed her opinion on this). In 2017 Trump Alerts told us that Ivanka had followed the singer on Twitter. And we know that she delights in describing herself as a working mother and businesswoman, what with helping to further her family’s companies while her father is in office. Perhaps she came across the tweet, in which Rihanna discusses taking personal days for self-care, and thought, Preach, queen.

Or maybe the person also employed to pop into Trump’s Twitter and clean up his feed when he is particularly on one while tripping on Diet Cokes was moved by the message. Maybe it was also a person seeking solace from their demanding job and felt a kinship with Rihanna’s struggle, and they liked the tweet as they yawned in the wee hours, the voice of Tucker Carlson droning on from the other room, the smell of fast food in the air.

The like remains, fueling all of these mysteries. Will we ever know what Donald Trump was thinking? Does he covet a ticket to the Diamond Ball? Does he think that Anti was the most critically underappreciated album of the last five years? Does he know all the words to “S&M”? Definitely not. But also...maybe.