What's Resonating: Thursday, December 4th

Spotify Wrapped, anti-Somali sentiment, and a drunk raccoon 🍸🦝

We’re back with another edition of What’s Resonating – a daily newsletter from the Resonate team that delivers a data-driven snapshot of the stories, trends, and messages shaping online culture and politics.

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Now, let’s dive in.

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What’s Resonating

• A VA raccoon breaks into a liquor store

• Anti-Somalia comments and Rep. Omar responses

• Hegseth and boat strikes

• Bad Bunny leads Spotify Wrapped

• Newly released Epstein images

Today’s Takeaway: As the Trump administration increases ICE’s presence in Minneapolis and spreads anti-Somali rhetoric against U.S. citizens and Rep. Ilhan Omar, left-leaning pages should drive attention to this new front of the immigration fight. Amplifying stories of ICE encounters or left-leaning responses to racist commentary from the Right has resulted in high engagement and is essential for combating these inhumane attacks.

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Yesterday on Social Media

🟦 Left-leaning accounts

• Rep. Ilhan Omar responded to the Trump administration’s rapid response account’s question of whether or not she married her brother with “I didn’t, but is your President a pedophile?” (145,000 likes, 5x average engagements)

  • MS NOW also shared a clip of Omar responding to Trump’s comments, calling Trump’s obsession with her and other Somali people “creepy,” and she hopes “he gets the help that he needs” before listing things he might want to distract from, including Epstein and the rising cost of living. (3.8 million views, 9x average likes)

  • Resonate’s Take: We often recommend that elected officials view Twitter as a hostile environment, where combative takes (particularly via quote tweet) are most rewarded. Omar’s comments here perfectly reflect that approach. Left-leaning messengers do not need to take the high road when faced with torrents of abuse, and the Epstein Files are an obvious vulnerability for Trump that should be brought up as frequently as possible while lawmakers wait for more information to be released.

• Courier amplified newly-released photos of Epstein’s island. (4.2 million views, 5x average views, most-liked left-leaning post)

• Roland Martin responded to a tweet claiming they had never met a white man with five kids and three baby mamas with “Donald Trump has five kids and three baby mommas.” (108,000 likes, 439x average engagements)

• Aaron Parnas reported on Rep. Elise Stefanik’s comments that Mike Johnson would not remain speaker if a new vote were held today. (1.4 million views across two posts)

• So Informed shared a post about a new bill introduced in the Senate designed to ban dual citizenship. (66,000 likes)

  • Occupy Democrats responded to Karoline Leavitt’s alleged quote about how “you can’t be a U.S. citizen and a citizen of another country,” with a reminder that both Melania and Baron Trump have dual citizenship with the U.S. and Slovenia. (83,000 likes, 4x average likes)

• Jimmy Kimmel’s monologue was the most-viewed left-leaning YouTube video and included commentary on Trump falling asleep in his cabinet meeting and updates on the Hegseth drug boat strike investigation. (1.4 million views)

🟥 Right-leaning accounts

• Anti-Somali sentiment continued to break through for right-leaning pages:

  • Elon Musk amplified a tweet that suggested Ilhan Omar “wasn’t even elected by Americans,” adding “the far left imported voters to gain power and it worked” (258,000 likes, 5x average engagements)

  • LiveNOW from Fox shared a clip of Trump’s comments about Rep. Omar and the Somali population in Minnesota, saying, “they have destroyed Minnesota.” (2.8 million views, 3x average views)

  • The Donald Trump for President Page posted breaking news that federal agents officially started arresting and deporting Somali immigrants. (84,000 likes, 27x average likes)

  • A Fox News opinion post tried to connect Tim Walz to an alleged “massive welfare heist” committed by Somalis against the state’s welfare programs. (71,000 likes)

  • Resonate’s Take: Since Tuesday, right-leaning pages have posted about Ilhan Omar or Somalis an astonishing 840 times, and those posts have over-performed by 30%. Nearly 6% of all right-leaning posts yesterday mentioned Rep. Omar or Somalis. This is clearly a concerted effort by the right, and so far it has been rewarded with strong engagement.

• David J Harris Jr. amplified Dr. Jill Biden’s comments about Trump ruining her husband’s economy. (145,000 likes, 18x average likes)

• Elon Musk amplified a post claiming 21 Democrat-controlled states will lose SNAP funding after refusing to comply with USDA “anti-fraud” requirements. (164,000 likes, 3x average engagements)

• Benny Johnson reported on Rep. Tim Burchett offering his name to be the Chairman of the DOGE Subcommittee. (70,000 likes, 4x average engagements)

  • Burchett’s post on the topic earned 43,000 likes and 5x the account’s average engagements.

• Candace Owens shared in her latest podcast episode that TPUSA invited her to sit down and get “sensible answers to our basic questions” regarding Charlie Kirk’s killing. (1.6 million views)

🟨 Neutral (Political) accounts

• A drunk raccoon found passed out in a Virginia liquor store went viral:

  • ABC News (11.1 million views, 18x average likes)

  • Metro (4.2 million views, 39x average likes)

  • CNN (4.5 million views, 93x average shares)

  • CBS News (1.9 million views, 19x average shares on TikTok, 247,000 likes and 138x average likes on Facebook)

  • The Daily Mail (2.4 million views, 18x average shares)

  • ABC World News Tonight (2.2 million views, 4x average likes)

• The Daily Mail reported on the release of new videos and photos from Epstein Island. (5.2 million views, 5x average likes)

  • Also covered by Brut (4.1 million views, double the average likes and views), The News Girl (1.3 million views), PBS News (554,000 views), The New York Times (47,000 likes)

• CBS News shared an interview with a Border Patrol Commander on their latest deployment in New Orleans. (1.4 million views)

• Metro, CNN, and Al Jazeera English posted about a mass wedding in Gaza.

• Al Jazeera English reported on Australia’s new social media ban on people younger than 16 years old to “protect against predatory algorithms.” (2.8 million views across two posts)

🟨 Neutral (Cultural) accounts

• Several pages covered Bad Bunny ranking as Spotify’s most-streamed artist, knocking Taylor Swift off the top of the list.

  • The Daily Mail (4.1 million views, 5x average likes)

  • The Washington Post (98,000 likes)

  • Pop Base (113,000 likes)

  • RapTV and Pubity posted about Spotify Wrapped’s release.

• LADbible TV shared a clip from an interview with a former CIA spy, in which he confirmed that the government can listen to you through your phone and control much of your technology. (1.1 million views)

• South Park mocked ICE’s social media content by depicting ICE preparing for South Park’s Turkey Trot. (743,000 views across two posts)

• Creator Pattie Gonia mocked Trump’s fitness while promoting their 100-mile backpacking trip in drag for charity. (320,000 views)

@washingtonpost

The Washington Post on Instagram: "For the fourth time, after c…

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