Trolling the Election

Waking up on election day is like waking up on Christmas—there’s a mix of anxiety, excitement and a rush to see what kinds of surprises await you. My present was a tweet from Donald Trump Jr.: “Show me the memes!!! It’s my second all nighter in a row and I’m too tired to search for them … This is going to be glorious.”

His father, President-elect Donald Trump, had just effectively secured his spot as the 47th president of the United States, a shocking outcome for many considering all of his widely covered and controversial behavior throughout the past few years. But this outcome isn’t surprising—the trolling “memes” his son and supporters feast over have foreshadowed this all along.

Now that we can hide behind a screen, conflict comes packaged as memes and jokes with no consequences. There’s a reason why Comedy Central’s roasts of celebrities like Tom Brady and Justin Bieber became viral sensations alongside Kendrick Lamar’s diss track over Drake, “Not Like Us,” set a record in topping Billboard’s Hot Rap Songs for 21 weeks. This love for Internet drama is why Trump was able to insult his way to victory back in the 2016 presidential election.

This time around, Trump put a major emphasis on winning the votes of the younger generations.

“The president is now on TikTok,” his first post—which gained him 3 million followers in a single day—declared on the universally popular social media app he once ironically tried to ban.

Trump’s venture into TikTok allowed him to branch out into more creative means of insults, igniting the fanatics of his supporter base. One popular example was his short video where he worked a shift at McDonald’s, stating “I’ve offically worked longer at Mcdonald's than Kamala!”

This attempt to undermine Harris’ claims of being a former employee of the franchise has since gained nearly 5 million likes. Trump has been able to redirect the increasing love of insult comedy and conflict within pop culture into politics.

Seeing how viral Trump’s out-of-pocket remarks became on social media, the Harris campaign also decided to play the same game. Only, things didn’t go over well upon their attempts.

President Joe Biden’s labeling of Trump supporters as “garbage” in response to an offensive joke told at a Trump rally not only got a lot of backlash but also gave Trump more content for his social media accounts. “HOW DO YOU LIKE MY GARBAGE TRUCK?” Trump captioned a post of him riding around in a garbage truck decorated with his famous “Make America Great Again” slogan. Unfortunately, you can’t try to beat Trump at his own game, or you’ll fall behind in a childish war of words—which is exactly what happened throughout the race.

Often, I hear people say they like Trump as an entertainer, not as a president. Trump’s rise was just a successful blurring of the lines between entertainment and politics where he used humor and fame to boost himself to presidential status—a feat both shocking yet fitting of the direction American entertainment is headed toward.

Where the Harris campaign received endorsements from celebrities like entrepreneur Mark Cuban, actor Mark Hamill and singer-songwriter Taylor Swift, the Trump campaign received endorsements from social media stars whose relevance comes through stirring up conflict online. Jake Paul, Adin Ross, The NELK Boys and Andrew Tate are among a few famous for trolling for views who have shown their support for Trump in the last few months. Trump’s celebrity endorsements particularly rallied the younger fanbases that favored brash antics similar to his own.

And this was seen in the polls, with initial projections showing a 249% increase in youth early vote numbers in Michigan, a known swing state. And surprise surprise, Trump edged the victory by 1.5% in this crucial state after losing it to Biden back in 2020.

So was it written in the stars all along? Was Trump able to win a substantial majority of the Electoral College due to the rising prominence of insult-comedy in the media today?

It certainly played a major role in the outcome of the election. With Trump’s polarity in our country, something must’ve been in his favor to be able to steal every single battleground state. Since his first presidential stint, Trump was not only able to desensitize the world to his immaturity but also to grow a massive fanbase who want this as the new norm.

Many people say that Trump is a success because he is not your average politician—he’s not scared to speak his mind. But, “speaking his mind” doesn’t necessarily mean his statements are based in fact—it just means he’s bold enough to say things that are out of line.