‘Alarming’: Trump retweets meme video & Twitter loses its mind
It is not the first time that President Donald Trump tweets a meme made by one of his supporters, but the video of Democrats reacting to his State of the Union set to R.E.M's "Everybody Hurts" actually got pinned.
The video found itself pinned to the top of Trump's Twitter account on Friday afternoon, after the president signed a controversial spending bill and declared a national emergency on the US-Mexico border, drawing outrage from both Democrats and his own supporters.
Twitter censoring you Mr. President? I got you fam. pic.twitter.com/jrrDBZRlCe
— Carpe Donktum🔹 (@CarpeDonktum) February 16, 2019
Made last week, the video shows the long faces of prominent Democrats – among them Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Bernie Sanders, Adam Schiff, Kirsten Gillibrand, Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer, and Kamala Harris – during last week's State of the Union address.
Vox, the liberal "explainer" outlet, swiftly denounced Trump's promotion of content from a "random Twitter account" as unpresidential.
Sure, this is funny — if, say, The Daily Show or Stephen Colbert does something like it. But for the president to tweet it, it's alarming.
Carpe has nearly 3x as many followers as the author of the Vox piece who called him a “random twitter account” pic.twitter.com/kPGYDsg5fj
— Jack Posobiec 🇺🇸 (@JackPosobiec) February 15, 2019
People who have made it their mission to troll the US president on Twitter absolutely hated it – as did former R.E.M. member Mike Mills, who used rather salty language to demand Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey do something.
By the way, this is where Trump is getting his meme sources. Some troll who wants a blue checkmark so badly he puts a blue diamond by his name. These are the random people Trump amplifies. pic.twitter.com/Rxo5kH3JH8
— Eugene Gu, MD (@eugenegu) February 15, 2019
The assholes @CarpeDonktum created the meme. #PresidentAsshole retweeted it. Measures have been taken to stop it. @jack you need to get on this.
— Mike Mills (@m_millsey) February 15, 2019
Twitter just shut down an Official Communication from the President of the United States... Over a song copyright. 😂😂😂😂😂 pic.twitter.com/Wy8T9rwCvv
— Carpe Donktum🔹 (@CarpeDonktum) February 16, 2019
Mills tried to clarify later that his problem was with copyright infringement, not with the tweet's politics.
Just to be clear, trolls. My feelings aren’t hurt, and I’m sure not “butthurt”. My reachout to @jack was to prevent unauthorized use of a song, not to censor. @CarpeDonktum and I are cool, the rest of you can put your thumbs back up your ass where they were.
— Mike Mills (@m_millsey) February 16, 2019
The author, a self-described "memesmith" who goes by the moniker Carpe Donktum, delighted in the attention, gaining thousands of followers on social media and announcing he would speak only to select journalists, while others are welcome to get into a "bread line starting in Venezuela."
@JackPosobiec, @OANN, and @culttture are also on the Approved List. OF COURSE
— Carpe Donktum🔹 (@CarpeDonktum) February 15, 2019
Trump supporters loved the video, with Carpe getting endorsements from cartoonist Scott Adams and actor James Woods, as well as Trump 2020 campaign manager Brad Parscale.
Thanks! You have A LOT to do with it. You have consistently given me great exposure and encouragement. Love You Man.
— Carpe Donktum🔹 (@CarpeDonktum) February 15, 2019
The best part of this is that the President tweeted it. These are the wildest times. Life is good. #Trump#TrollMasterExtraordinairehttps://t.co/5oTkLRPV3J
— James Woods (@RealJamesWoods) February 15, 2019
#boss 🤣 https://t.co/NextG22Rxw
— Brad Parscale (@parscale) February 15, 2019
It is not the first time the memesmith has used R.E.M's "Everybody Hurts." It was deployed to devastating effect in his May 2018 video featuring former Obama adviser Ben Rhodes trying to cope with Hillary Clinton's defeat in the 2016 presidential election.
Subscribe to RT newsletter to get stories the mainstream media won’t tell you.
