White House wants us to see Trump as Superman. We all know he's the villain.
President Donald Trump, the man whose first run for the presidency was widely viewed as a joke until it wasn't, wants to make you laugh.On July 11, Trump's communications team posted a photo of the president edited into the poster from the new 'Superman' movie with the all-caps caption, 'A SYMBOL OF HOPE. TRUTH. JUSTICE. THE AMERICAN WAY. SUPERMAN TRUMP,' tied up in a patriotic bow with an American flag emoji.
The self-mythologizing is almost laughable. Almost.
It's not the first time the Trump administration has tried to joke with the American public. In recent months, his communications team posted a photo of him dressed as the pope, a video of Gaza as a golden Trump paradise, and countless Truth Social posts that rely on YELLING IN ALL CAPS AT RANDOM and painting Trump as the greatest president to ever do it.
But we shouldn't laugh. That's exactly what he wants. We should instead realize how sad it is to watch an American president beg for attention.
Trump wants to be seen as the hero. He's the villain.
Trump presenting himself as Superman is just a distraction from the fact that he's the true villain of this story, the one who is harming entire groups of people in the United States for the fun of it. Similarly, he has done nothing to deserve a comparison to the pope. In fact, the newly selected Pope Leo XIV has already criticized Trump's deportation agenda, the emergence of nationalism, and Trump's strike on Iranian nuclear facilities back in June. Superman would never.
Opinion: I saw the new liberal 'Superman' movie and it gave me the woke mind virus
I am against memeifying the presidency, no matter who is in office. I was against 'Dark Brandon,' the meme genre produced by chronically online Democratic strategists during Joe Biden's presidency.
A meme of a presidency does nothing for the American public. It does not tell us what the head of our country is doing to make our society work for us. It does not heal the nation; it simply distracts from what ails us.
But there's something different about the way Trump tries to joke with the American public. It works better than the Biden ilk of memes, mostly because the MAGA audience is receptive to it. They put his face on T-shirts. They share his posts. They fly his flag as much, if not more, than the American flag. They lean into the absurdity.
It's not just MAGA, either. There's a certain subset of leftists who laugh at Trump, as opposed to with him. They make fun of his ridiculous posts and his blatant narcissism. While it manages to mitigate the fear that has come along with a Trump presidency, it also fails to capture the real dangers of the situation we find ourselves in as a country delving headfirst into the Trumpian. It's a real 'laugh to keep from crying' scenario, and I have to wonder if it actually improves our circumstances.
Opinion: Zohran Mamdani rallied Gen Z voters. We can't abandon him now.
Trump is just distracting us from how much we don't like him
At the end of the day, maybe we all just want to be liked – even the president. Perhaps Trump is memeing himself to get people to think he isn't that bad. At the very least, it serves as a distraction from the ways he is unpopular with the American public, according to a slew of polls on issues ranging from immigration to tariffs.
In recent days, MAGA has turned on Trump because of the criminal investigation of the files related to the criminal investigation of Jeffrey Epstein. He's facing hundreds of lawsuits for different administrative actions, most recently getting sued over the release of $7 billion in education grants. He is forging ahead with his extreme immigration agenda that aims to arrest 3,000 people a day.
His popularity is slipping, and he currently has an average 44% approval rating. In particular, he is losing the faith of the middle class, who are still struggling with an economy that doesn't work for them and the potential damage of the appropriations bill and tariffs.
Trump doesn't want you to pay attention to that, though. He just wants to make you laugh.
Whether he's Superman, the pope, or just a man in an oversized suit, Trump's whole schtick is that he's an eccentric man who happened to become president. A meme can't acknowledge the truth – that he is a deeply unpopular president who is hellbent on destroying the country. Maybe it's best if we all stop laughing.
Follow USA TODAY columnist Sara Pequeño on X, formerly Twitter, @sara__pequeno
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Time Magazine
a few seconds ago
- Time Magazine
How the Autopen Earned Donald Trump's Ire
For President Donald Trump, the 'biggest political scandal' in American history isn't Watergate. Neither is it the Teapot Dome scandal of the early 1920s or the Reagan Administration's Iran-Contra Affair. To him, short of the 2020 election he claims was stolen from him, the most scandalous thing to ever happen in U.S. politics is a machine that copies signatures. An autopen is at the heart of a political witch hunt that Trump launched against his predecessor, Joe Biden. In June, Trump ordered an investigation into Biden and his aides—the latter of whom he claims abused the former President's signature and used it 'across thousands of documents to effect radical policy shifts.' Among the signed decisions Trump cast doubt on was Biden's high-profile pardons and commutations, as well as presidential appointments. Trump also claimed the machine's extensive use concealed Biden's 'serious cognitive decline.' Biden has strongly denied the allegations, calling Trump and his team 'liars.' Speaking to the New York Times on July 10, Biden asserted that he 'made every decision' on clemency matters and authorized his staff to use his presidential autopen because 'there were a lot of people.' 'The autopen is, you know, is legal,' he told the Times. 'As you know, other Presidents used it, including Trump.' Read More: Trump Orders Investigation Into Biden and His Aides. Here's What to Know But Trump has not let go of the autopen controversy. Speaking at the White House on Monday, he once again said it is 'maybe one of the biggest scandals that we've had in 50-100 years… I guarantee you: he [Biden] knew nothing about what he was signing.' Trump also said Biden misused the automaton, arguing it should be reserved for niceties instead of important documents. 'That's what the autopen's supposed to be—to write to a young 7-year-old boy,' he said. 'It's not supposed to be for signing major legislation and all of the things.' The autopen is the latest item of fascination for Republicans questioning Biden's cognitive status, particularly during the last few months of his term—in an apparent goal to invalidate some of the former President's signed decisions. Rep. James Comer (R, Ky.), chair of the House Oversight Committee, has led a probe into Biden's supposed 'mental decline and use of autopen,' and has subpoenaed those in Biden's orbit. (NBC News reported that Comer's digital signature was used in letters and subpoenas in connection to the probe.) Read More: Biden's Former Physician Asks to Postpone Testimony to House Panel Over Concerns for Doctor-Patient Confidentiality A history of replicated signatures The story of autopens and signature reproduction dates back to 1803, when John Isaac Hawkins received a patent for his invention which he called the 'polygraph,' a machine that duplicates handwriting. Thomas Jefferson is said to be the first President to use an early version of a machine that would copy what he wrote in real-time. He had raving reviews of it, writing in one letter: 'The use of the polygraph has spoiled me for the old copying press, the copies of which are hardly ever legible… I could not, now therefore, live without the Polygraph.' Using an autopen used to be a discretionary affair, though it is often referred to as one of Washington's 'worst-kept secrets.' Harry Truman is believed to be the first U.S. President to use what we now know as an autopen. Gerald Ford acknowledged its function, with White House staff using the machines to reproduce signatures on photographs and letters. Over time, the signing machine became more visible to the public eye: Lyndon B. Johnson was the first President to be photographed using the autopen. Those photos appeared in 1968 in the National Enquirer with the headline 'The Robot that Sits in for the President.' In a 1989 Los Angeles Times article, presidential autograph collector Paul K. Carr of Rockville, Md., reported on how various Presidents used autopens. Carr ranked Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan as among those Commanders-in-Chief who have issued the most different autopenned signatures. But it was in 2005 under George W. Bush that legal analysis for the President's use of the autopen emerged. At Bush's request, the Justice Department issued a memorandum opinion, and said the 'President need not personally perform the physical act of affixing his signature to a bill he approves and decides to sign in order for the bill to become law. Rather, the President may sign a bill within the meaning of Article I, Section 7 by directing a subordinate to affix the President's signature to such a bill, for example by autopen.' Bush eventually did not use proxies for signing bills. Six years later, Barack Obama made history as the first President to sign legislation into law using the autopen: affixing his signature through the White House Staff Secretary to a last-minute extension of the Patriot Act while he was in France for the G8 Summit. Several House Republicans penned a letter asking Obama to refrain from the practice, saying that none of his predecessors used an autopen to sign bills into law. Later that year, Obama continued using the autopen, this time in Bali, Indonesia, for an appropriations bill. In 2013, Obama used the autopen again to sign the fiscal cliff bill while he was in Hawaii for vacation. Read More: Why Trump Can't 'Void' Biden's Pardons Because of Autopen What we know about Biden's and Trump's autopen use According to emails obtained by the New York Times, Biden made four sets of clemency actions recorded with an autopen—one set which included preemptive pardons for his family. The autopen was used 'in all, on 25 pardon and commutation warrants from last December to January.' TIME has not reviewed these emails. The emails reportedly confirmed that it was former White House Staff Secretary Stefanie Feldman who managed Biden's autopen, and needed written accounts of Biden's oral instructions in meetings before its use. Before turning over the presidency to Trump, Biden met with his senior aides. After the meeting, per the Times, then-White House Chief of Staff Jeffrey Zients on Jan. 19 wrote an email to the meeting participants that read: 'I approve the use of the autopen for the execution of all of the following pardons.' Trump and his team have been pressed about what evidence they have about Biden not signing off on the clemency actions. Harrison Fields, the principal deputy press secretary of the White House, told The National News Desk that 'the truth will come out about who was, in fact, running the country, sooner or later.' Trump himself, however, has downplayed his own use of the autopen. When asked in March about whether he used it, he said: 'Yes, only for very unimportant papers… I'll sign them whenever I can, but when I can't, I, you know, would use an autopen. But to use them for what they've used it for is terrible.'
CNBC
a minute ago
- CNBC
Former NEC Director Gary Cohn on state of the economy, Trump's tariff agenda & Fed's inflation fight
Gary Cohn, IBM vice chairman and former National Economic Council Director under President Trump, joins 'Squawk Box' to discuss the state of the economy, June's CPI data, President Trump's tariff agenda, impact of uncertainty on businesses, latest market trends, the Fed's inflation fight, rate path outlook, and more.
Fox News
a minute ago
- Fox News
Portland City Council considers how to boot ICE out of city facility
Portland's progressive-leaning city council is exploring ways to expel Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) from a detention facility that has become a flashpoint for violent clashes between agents and radical agitators. Last week, city councilors told a packed hearing that they would consider revoking ICE's permit to operate its South Waterfront facility along South Moody Avenue due to alleged violations of a 2011 conditional-use permit, according to local news outlet Willamette Week. The permit allows detention and administrative use under specific limitations, but lawmakers have raised concerns that ICE has been holding detainees there for longer than the required 12-hour limit. PATRIOTIC ICE OFFICER REPLACES AMERICAN FLAG AFTER PROTESTERS BURNED EXISTING BANNER AT PORTLAND FACILITY Residents and lawmakers raised moral concerns too, saying that the facility undermines the city's sanctuary city policy, while residents testified about targeted arrests, gas attacks and intimidation. "Our values of sanctuary and humanity are under siege," local resident Michelle Dar said. She also said that federal agents' armed actions threatened everyone's safety, not just that of immigrants. Other residents complained that loud bangs and flashbangs were disrupting life for residents of subsidized housing and students of a local school. A handful of people also blamed Antifa for the ugly scenes outside the facility. Chaotic scenes have been unfolding outside the facility since June, including in one incident where a large group of anti-ICE protesters tried to block law enforcement vehicles from entering and exiting the facility, forcing agents to deploy rubber bullets, tear gas and flash bangs to disperse the crowd. Violent agitators have also smashed windows, pelted agents and the facility with rocks and other objects. On Independence Day, violent rioters cut internet cables, damaged the sprinkler system, hurled rocks and fireworks at law enforcement and burned an American flag, according to DHS. But most residents and lawmakers' concerns pertained to ICE's alleged violation of its permit terms, particularly related to how long detainees were being held, rather than the violence caused by protesters or agitators. They urged the council to revoke the permit, citing a local report that ICE had violated the permit more than two dozen times by holding detainees for longer than 12 hours. "If we allow ICE to continue to operate when they have violated their permits, that means that anything becomes permissible moving forward," City Council Member Angelita Morillo told the community and public safety committee hearing. "And so, for me, that change in information has changed the calculation." Meanwhile, City Council Member Steve Novick said the council should take a broader moral stand against the federal deportation machine. "This is an assault on our democracy as a whole… The assault on immigrants is the tip of the spear," Novick said, per the outlet. "We should not be trying to figure out how to keep our heads low and avoid the attention of this administration." City Council Member Eric Zimmerman said the chamber was exploring legal pathways to revoke the permit and that the city attorney's office was working on a memo about the city's legal options regarding the ICE facility. Border Czar Tom Homan last week vowed to "double down and triple down" on sanctuary cities that are obstructing ICE operations, specifically mentioning Portland. "We're going to do the job," Homan said on Fox News' "Kudlow." "We're going to do it in Portland too. But for the mayors of New York City and Chicago, President [Donald] Trump made it clear two weeks ago, we are going to double down and triple down the sanctuary cities. … If we can't arrest that bad guy in the jail, then we'll go to the community and we'll find him. Or we'll do more worksite enforcement."
