--- title: Donald Trump's Tweets on Puerto Rico, Military Did Poorly description: President Trump's handling of Puerto Rico and military deaths rank among his worst under a popular metric for measuring responses to tweets. canonical: https://time.com/4988444/donald-trump-twitter-tweets-puerto-rico-military-obamacare/ author: TIME article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-10-18T21:20:19.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-03-30T12:29:36.186Z article:section: Politics og:title: Trump's Tweets About Puerto Rico, Military Families Among His 10 Worst-Received Ever og:description: According to one popular measurement og:url: https://time.com/4988444/donald-trump-twitter-tweets-puerto-rico-military-obamacare/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc9f993f34e7f0466/6988de1ae76ad281c462f2e7/trump-twitter.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2560 og:image:height: 1440 og:image:alt: Via Twitter, Trump Threatens To Cancel Mexico Visit To White House Over Wall og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Trump's Tweets About Puerto Rico, Military Families Among His 10 Worst-Received Ever twitter:description: According to one popular measurement twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc9f993f34e7f0466/6988de1ae76ad281c462f2e7/trump-twitter.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # President Trump's Tweets About Puerto Rico, Military Families Rank Among His 10 Worst-Received Ever > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. by [Ryan Teague Beckwith](https://time.com/author/ryan-teague-beckwith/) and [Pratheek Rebala](https://time.com/author/pratheek-rebala/) Oct 18, 2017 9:20 PM UTC  The Twitter Inc. account of U.S. President Donald Trump, @realDoanldTrump seen on a phone. The Twitter Inc. account of U.S. President Donald Trump, @realDoanldTrump seen on a phone. Andrew Harrer—Bloomberg/Getty Images by [Ryan Teague Beckwith](https://time.com/author/ryan-teague-beckwith/) and [Pratheek Rebala](https://time.com/author/pratheek-rebala/) Oct 18, 2017 9:20 PM UTC President Trump’s handling of Puerto Rico and military deaths rank among his worst under a popular metric for measuring responses to tweets. It’s called [the Ratio](http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/news/a54440/twitter-ratio-reply/), and it refers to tweets that get more replies than likes. Since there’s no way to downvote a tweet, a high number of replies without likes is typically a sign that many users were disagreeing with you. Because Trump has so many followers — [40 million](https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump) under the most recent count, making him the [most-followed world leader](http://www.politico.com/story/2017/10/04/trump-most-followed-world-leader-twitter-243444) on the social networking platform — it’s fairly hard for him to get a bad Ratio. Only one tweet — about “Morning Joe” co-host Mika Brzezinski — received more replies than likes, the measure of a poorly received tweet. But several tweets in September and October about Puerto Rico, military families, an Alabama Senate race and his relationship with Secretary of State Rex Tillerson rank among his worst ratios of replies to likes since he became president. Here’s a list of his top 10 tweets according to the Ratio, according to an analysis by TIME. Criticizing “Morning Joe” host [Mika Brzezinski](http://time.com/4838899/donald-trump-twitter-morning-joe-mike-brzezinski/): 89,000 replies, 79,000 likes > [](https://twitter.com/realdonaldtrump/status/880410114456465411) Lamenting the failure of the [“skinny” Obamacare repeal](http://time.com/4877901/john-mccain-skinny-repeal-vote/): 92,000 replies, 92,000 likes > [](https://twitter.com/realdonaldtrump/status/890820505330212864) Attacking the [mayor of San Juan](http://time.com/4964214/donald-trump-puerto-rico-fake-news/), Puerto Rico: 53,000 replies, 57,000 likes > [](https://twitter.com/realdonaldtrump/status/914089003745468417) Responding to the [loss of a Senate candidate](http://time.com/4958763/donald-trump-twitter-roy-moore-luther-strange-alabama/) he backed: 44,000 replies, 47,000 likes > [](https://twitter.com/realdonaldtrump/status/914269704440737792) Criticizing [an account of his phone call](http://time.com/4987094/donald-trump-david-johnson-james-comey/) with a military widow: 63,000 replies, 73,000 likes > [](https://twitter.com/realdonaldtrump/status/920611770775064576) Promoting his Administration’s efforts in Puerto Rico: 65,000 replies, 78,000 likes > [](https://twitter.com/realdonaldtrump/status/917172144710103040) Arguing that emergency response in Puerto Rico can’t last forever: 53,000 replies, 65,000 likes > [](https://twitter.com/realdonaldtrump/status/918432809282342912) Criticizing [an NBC News report about Secretary of State Rex Tillerson](http://time.com/4975666/donald-trump-rex-tillerson-secretary-of-state/) allegedly calling him a moron: 77,000 replies, 99,000 likes > [](https://twitter.com/realdonaldtrump/status/918112884630093825) Responding to former [FBI Director James Comey’s](http://time.com/4828886/donald-trump-james-comey-tapes/) accounts of their interactions: 59,000 replies, 76,000 likes > [](https://twitter.com/realdonaldtrump/status/863007411132649473) Responding to coverage of [Michael Flynn’s resignation](http://time.com/4670450/donald-trump-michael-flynn-leaks/): 84,000 replies, 110,000 likes > [](https://twitter.com/realdonaldtrump/status/831510532318429184) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4988444/donald-trump-twitter-tweets-puerto-rico-military-obamacare/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4988444/donald-trump-twitter-tweets-puerto-rico-military-obamacare/"},"headline":"President Trump's Tweets About Puerto Rico, Military Families Rank Among His 10 Worst-Received Ever","datePublished":"2017-10-18T21:20:19.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-30T12:29:36.186Z","description":"According to one popular measurement","url":"https://time.com/4988444/donald-trump-twitter-tweets-puerto-rico-military-obamacare/","keywords":["Donald Trump","Health Care","Military","Obamacare","Congress","Affordable Care Act","twitter","FBI","Puerto Rico","James Comey","Michael Flynn","Rex Tillerson","Hurricane Maria"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc9f993f34e7f0466/6988de1ae76ad281c462f2e7/trump-twitter.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Ryan Teague Beckwith","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/ryan-teague-beckwith/"},{"@type":"Person","name":"Pratheek Rebala","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/pratheek-rebala/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc9f993f34e7f0466/6988de1ae76ad281c462f2e7/trump-twitter.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Via Twitter, Trump Threatens To Cancel Mexico Visit To White House Over Wall","caption":"Via Twitter, Trump Threatens To Cancel Mexico Visit To White House Over Wall","creditText":"Andrew Harrer—Bloomberg/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/donald-trump/","name":"Donald Trump"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4988444/donald-trump-twitter-tweets-puerto-rico-military-obamacare/","name":"President Trump's Tweets About Puerto Rico, Military Families Rank Among His 10 Worst-Received Ever"}}]}] ```