The clip was widely circulated on social media, where it was the No. 1 trending topic on Twitter, shared tens of thousands times as of early Friday. Several videos of the segment each racked up hundreds of thousands of views. Barkley's words represented an inflection point for the Smollett story, as people of varying ideologies were seemingly united on social media for contrasting reasons. Although most wanted to laugh with Barkley, whose opinions on race have sometimes met with pushback, others tagged their posts #MAGA in support of President Donald Trump and used the video as a way to pile on Smollett, his supporters and the media coverage surrounding the case.