By Thursday morning, the tweet had achieved a beastly ratio of more than 22,000 replies to 1,600 retweets.

Yuri Gripas / Reuters Republican National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel and President Trump.

The chair of the Republican National Committee is trying to clarify what many viewed as a threat of strongarm tactics against Donald Trump's opponents. “Complacency is our enemy,” Ronna McDaniel posted Wednesday night on Twitter. “Anyone that does not embrace the @realDonaldTrump agenda of making America great again will be making a mistake.”

Complacency is our enemy. Anyone that does not embrace the @realDonaldTrump agenda of making America great again will be making a mistake. Ronna McDaniel / Via Twitter

The tweet quickly ricocheted around Twitter and by Thursday morning had achieved a beastly ratio of more than 22,000 replies — many of them critical of McDaniel — to 1,600 retweets. “I’m old enough to remember when Ronna Romney McDaniel spoke in a way befitting a citizen of a free republic, before Ronna McDaniel started sounding like a spokesperson for an authoritarian government,” tweeted Bill Kristol, the conservative commentator and a leading anti-Trump voice who has been encouraging a primary challenge in 2020. McDaniel's tweet appeared to be reconstructed from a different context, during an interview she did the evening before on Fox Business Network’s Lou Dobbs Tonight. More than 12 hours after the missive — and only after first tweeting birthday wishes to Trump — she attempted a walk-back by posting a transcript from the appearance, which she said "didn’t translate well with a 240-character limit." On Wednesday night and Thursday morning, RNC officials reached by BuzzFeed News declined to elaborate on the tweet or how it was posted in such a threatening context.

Here’s the full context (https://t.co/TB89agUXoK) of my answer referenced in this tweet, which didn’t translate well with a 240-character limit: https://t.co/MxcScW3QY1 Ronna McDaniel / Via Twitter