Politics has crept its way toward a new style of campaigning, and it’s on your social media feed. Platforms like Instagram, TikTok and X are now the epicenter of propaganda in today’s modern age. It’s disheartening to see national politicians engage with each other through meme wars. The professionalism and sternness meant to uphold a nation erode when attitudes like this are displayed in public office. Let’s just take a look at the meme war between California Gov. Gavin Newsom and President Donald Trump.
Newsom has been active on TikTok and X, posting memes targeted at Trump. One of the more recent posts by Newsom, directed at Trump, dealt with the government shutdown. Newsom used an old clip of Trump in a 2011 interview with Meredith Vieira on NBC’s Today Show, where he stated that he thinks “it would be a tremendously negative mark on the president of the United States” if a government shutdown occurred.
“If there is a shutdown, I actually think the president would be blamed,” Trump said in the interview.
Following the clip of Trump in the interview, the song “Hope” by Faith Evans plays in the background while a slideshow with pictures of Trump, Vice President J.D. Vance, House Speaker Mike Johnson and the White House reasoning for shutting down begins to play. The slideshow is captioned stating, “He did in fact shut down the government for the third time, they did in fact blame Democrats even though Republicans control the U.S. House, the Senate and the White House.” The video ends with a tweet from the White House stating, “Call it the Trump Effect.”
This post was created under Newsom’s TikTok account and has received over 4.8 million views, over 1.1 million likes and has been shared over 134,800 times.
Memes’ place in the culture of politics plays a bigger role than one may think. They are fast, easy to share and accessible to all audiences, allowing this type of propaganda to reach a larger audience.
When scrolling through Trump’s X account, you can find AI-generated videos, edited clips of his opponents and clips of Trump in specific scenarios to glorify himself. An example of this is a post made by Trump, in which he edited his own face onto Mount Rushmore alongside George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln, who represent the birth, growth, preservation and development of the U.S..
Newsom and Trump are seemingly engaged in a “meme war” where they post digs at each other online on X, Instagram and TikTok.
Although these posts are often comical, do they reach a point where we look to political leaders in the U.S. and lose respect for them as professionals? Both Trump and Newsom have employed this style of meme as a means of communication to connect with their social audience. This strategy prior would have been seen as unfitting for a politically elected official, but now it is a part of the strategy.
Both of these leaders can be seen utilizing this platform to dominate their opponents. The tool is there, why wouldn’t they? However, these posts are not merely intended to inform, but also to entertain and engage an audience in a snarky conversation. Does the public need meme-level content to stay engaged? When examining engagement on these posts, it is evident that it does. Trump’s most recent TikTok claiming that he has saved TikTok has received 14.5 million views, 1.4 million likes, 75,900 comments, and over 110,000 shares.
Newsom has created a new image for himself for Democrats, even earning a spot on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. This happened right after Jimmy Kimmel was taken off ABC after comments he made about the passing of conservative podcaster and leader of Turning Point USA, Charlie Kirk. Trump’s supporters have continued to praise his social media posts, regardless of the content.
It becomes exhausting and, honestly, scary to see political discourse turned into a flood of memes bashing Democratic and Republican leaders when they are meant to work together. This shift is turning politics into a popularity contest and blurring the lines of what a politician truly stands for. Our nation is at war with itself.
The posts Trump has made, which appear to be comical to his audience, come across as unprofessional and disrespectful. He has consistently posted and used this humor to dismiss accountability that many Americans are demanding, all while gaining political advantage from his loyal supporters. Trump’s posts are often used to spread misinformation, even when they’re claimed to be used for entertainment. Trump’s online behavior can also be a reflection of his administration as a whole. The posts reflect the entire administration’s tendency to circumvent ethical standards and the law when it serves their interests.
Trump’s Instagram post from Feb. 25 is an AI-generated video representing “Trump’s Gaza.” The AI video shows soldiers and families of Gaza struggling in the rubble, but when walking through a cave, they seem to enter “Trump’s Gaza.”
“Trump’s Gaza” showcases a life of riches, where both Trump and Elon Musk are pictured enjoying these riches. This AI-generated version of Gaza features sunny beaches, poolside services and money falling from the sky. The video also includes Tesla cars driving around and a giant gold statue of Trump himself.
Users flooded the obscene post’s comment section with comments like “You lost me this is so dystopic and creepy,” and “A fucking golden statue of yourself. For fucking real?”
Posting memes will seemingly always be intertwined with campaigning and this administration; the world that we live in now is all accessible online. Memes are being used to make politicians seem relatable, but they often come across as oversimplified narratives, which can fuel the spread of disinformation and misinformation.
If governance becomes a meme, the rest of democracy will start to look like a joke.
