A global coronavirus outbreak has killed thousands and put world leaders on edge. But President Donald Trump is sharing dank memes.
Lest anyone forget that we live in the weirdest timeline, Trump retweeted a strange video of him owning the libs on Sunday night, just hours after officials confirmed the second American death from the virus and the first case in New York City.
The two-minute clip is catnip for a pro-Trump internet shaped by irony and snark. It belittles the president’s political opponents, takes aim at critical journalists, and plays into the MAGA cult of personality.
Trump shared the propaganda as he continues to downplay the coronavirus threat. He’s portrayed Democrats’ concern about the disease — which has killed more than 3,000 and now threatens a U.S. landfall — as a hoax. And news outlets’ reporting on his administration’s response has highlighted confusion and misinformation at the top.
Trump isn’t doing much to allay fears that he’s not taking the potential for a pandemic seriously. As global markets plummeted amid public health concerns last week, the president spent 45 minutes meeting with actors in a play about the so-called Deep State.
The bizarro content he shared Sunday night, originally made last year, has since been viewed at least 1.1 million times. It shows a smiling Trump strutting past a weird array of cartoonish imagery showing his opponents, accomplishments, and random bits of Americana:
- vultures picking over Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign logo
- the Rocky Balboa statue in Philadelphia
- the “Fearless Girl” statue on Wall Street watching a bar chart labeled “economy” reach ever higher
- a silhouette of the “Charging Bull” statue on Wall Street, complete with extra-large testicles swinging back and forth
- an image of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez holding a sign saying “The End Is Near”
- Trump waving a wand to erase a graphic reading “SOCIALISM”
- Hillary Clinton physically sinking into a swamp
- Sen. Chuck Schumer with a crying emoji for a head
- Former Vice President Joe Biden giving a back massage to the woman from the “triggered feminist” meme
- CNN media reporter Brian Stelter ushering college grads into a blast furnace that scorches them into “NPCs” — gamer-speak for “non-playable characters” controlled by the computer
- MSNBC host Rachel Maddow, CNN host Don Lemon, and the website Vox running around as Pinocchios
- Fox News host Sean Hannity triumphantly pointing out of the driver seat of a Hummer
- A billboard showing Trump superimposed on an image of King Conan (as in Conan the Barbarian)
- Mount Rushmore — but with four Trump faces
- A closing voiceover in which Trump says “Goodbye, Hillary. Bye.”
Cover: President Donald Trump hugs the flag of the United States of America at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) at Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center on February 29, 2020 in National Harbor, Maryland. (Photo by The Asahi Shimbun via Getty Images)
