Barack Obama Is Crushing Donald Trump On Twitter

President Donald Trump may be Twitter's most infamous user, but he's nowhere near as popular as one not-so-ordinary citizen: Barack Obama. The former president has experienced an incredible surge in popularity on the social media platform since leaving office — even if he's not as prolific as the current president — and the 44th president could cause some significant headaches for No. 45 as a result.

Trump has an impressive Twitter following at 28.6 million, a figure that is nearly double what he had as recently as a few weeks before the election. But he still is far behind Obama, who has an astonishing 87.4 million followers.

Obama has become one of the most popular people on Twitter — he's the third most followed user on the platform, trailing only Katy Perry and Justin Bieber, who have 97.5 million and 93.5 million followers, respectively.

Trump, on the other hand, is in 39th in terms of followers, just ahead of Neymar and trailing Bruno Mars. CNN — the media organization Trump targets the most — has 20 million more followers than him.

Less than five years ago, Obama became just the third person to reach 10 million followers. By the end of his term, he was hovering in the 80 million range. His followers spiked right after Trump was inaugurated, with 2 million more added in a matter of days, and another 5 million following him in the three months since.

And it's not just the total number of followers that show Obama's popularity on the social media platform. While Trump's "favorites" have plunged since his inauguration, going from an average of about 150,000 favorites per tweet to the 60-80K range in recent weeks, Obama's tweets often get 10 times that figure.

Of course, unlike Trump, Obama's tweets are rare. He has only tweeted nine times since leaving office, compared to around 400 times for Trump since his Jan. 20 inauguration. But there's signs he's emerging from the shadows with his presidency behind him. He recently tweeted his sympathies to Jimmy Kimmel in response to his son's surgery and used it as an opportunity to defend the Affordable Care Act — the same ACA that Trump tried unsuccessfully to repeal and replace a few weeks ago.

Well said, Jimmy. That's exactly why we fought so hard for the ACA, and why we need to protect it for kids like Billy. And congratulations! https://t.co/77F8rZrD3P
— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) May 2, 2017

So who cares? At least one person: the man occupying the Oval Office. Trump has frequently boasted about his social media followers.

Thank you!

Facebook: https://t.co/nmlRJqzA7S

Instagram: https://t.co/5gDeluaBXG pic.twitter.com/Pw7GS8R9Gg
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 29, 2016

Trump has also bristled at claims that his inauguration crowd was significantly smaller than Obama's, even sending out Sean Spicer to lambaste the media for it in his first ever presser.

Trump may have been the first person ever to use Twitter as a major campaign device, but if the current trends continue, his predecessor may wield far more influence on the platform in the coming years.

How Obama intends to use his strong position on social media remains to be seen. But if his latest tweets are any indication, he's got some big plans in store. And the same way that Twitter changed everything by allowing a presidential candidate to speak directly to the people, it could allow a former president to be a thorn in the side of a current POTUS like never before.

We're rolling up our sleeves again, back where it all started. Join us at https://t.co/GYkEOK8EuT. https://t.co/UlyvNrQvZR
— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) May 3, 2017

Image via official Twitter profiles of Barack Obama and Donald Trump