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McDonald’s apologized Thursday after it briefly posted on Twitter a blast criticizing President Donald Trump, which the company blamed on a hack from an external source.
The quickly deleted tweet offered an uncharitable appraisal of Trump, saying, “You are actually a disgusting excuse of a President and we would love to have Barack Obama back, also you have tiny hands.”
The tweet was removed mid-morning Thursday soon after being posted to one of McDonald’s official Twitter feeds — but not before being retweeted more than a thousand times and garnering plenty of attention in political and media circles.
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“Based on our investigation, we have determined that our Twitter account was hacked by an external source,” said McDonald’s spokeswoman Terri Hickey in a statement.
“We took swift action to secure it, and we apologize this tweet was sent through our corporate McDonald’s account.”
Hacking has been a persistent problem in recent years with the growing influence of Twitter and other social media sites.
In April 2013, a hack of the Associated Press resulted in an erroneous post that the White House had been attacked, briefly sending US stocks markets down in a panic.
