Not the Insecure fan we were expecting. Twitter users are still sharing Issa Rae’s response to President Trump’s liked Insecure tweet about Molly. If you haven’t seen the latest episode of the HBO series, let’s just say the tweet includes a minor spoiler about the episode—so backtrack and go watch it if you haven’t already.
As for the tweet in question: A Twitter user, @shiningheaux, posted a GIF of young Celie and Nettie from The Color Purple playing patty-cake, with the comment, “This is how I wanted tonight’s episode of insecure to end…Damn Molly.” After Episode 9 of Insecure aired on June 7, many were disappointed by Issa (Issa Rae) and Molly’s (Yvonne Orji) fallout. The pair didn’t reconcile as some hoped they would by the season’s end (there’s still one episode left—let’s see).
Things got…weird, though, when Twitter users realized that none other than President Donald J. Trump liked the tweet. Not only that—it’s the only tweet his account had liked, period. And so ensued the confusion.
Insecure fans had many, many questions. Is 45 secretly an Issa Rae stan? Was he, too, gunning for a reconciliation between our girl Issa and Molly? Does he instead like The Color Purple—the movie from which the tweeted GIF comes from? But, mainly, Issa’s response summed it all up nicely: “What the f*ck is this?”
The 35-year-old actress eventually caught wind of the tweetstorm after a user tagged her in a post about it. After weighing in on the collective confusion, Issa couldn’t even entertain the jokes for long. Kumail Nanjiani, her co-star in Netflix’s new original, Lovebirds, trolled the whole situation: “Well I found one thing I have in common with him: we’re both big fans of @IssaRae,” he tweeted.
“Kumail,” Issa said bluntly. She attached a GIF pulled from Nia DaCosta’s forthcoming film, Candyman, where actress Vanessa Williams can be seen waving her finger and shushing someone. “Shh! Don’t say that,” the subtitles read.
After some sleuthing, more fans on Twitter realized that the account that posted the original tweet (@shiningheaux) might actually be a bot account that posts content targeted at Black Twitter. According to Twitter user @Dimplez, it’s a possible “growth hacking” strategy.
“It’s a newly created bot account. Him liking it will draw followers to it. So tomorrow or in a couple of days when that account starts attacking black people it’ll look legitimate,” they wrote. Which, if that’s all true…damn.
Insecure Season 4 finale airs Sunday on HBO.