Democratic Primaries

• Joe Biden:
  • "Lying, dog-faced pony soldier" ^Explanation When campaigning in New Hampshire, Joe Biden laid the aforementioned insult on a college student who'd asked him about his recent (major) loss in Iowa. His campaign says it's a Shout-Out to a John Wayne movie, but no one has been able to find a movie with that particular insult.
  • Dementia Joe ^Explanation Biden's obtuse and eccentric behavior during the primaries led to his critics (both Trump supporters and embittered Bernie supporters) portraying him as a doddering, senile old idiot.
  • Sleepy Joe ^Explanation The nickname Trump gave to Biden once he became a candidate, in the line of "Low-energy Jeb [Bush]" and "Lyin' Ted [Cruz]". This one ended up having a catch, however, when after Biden actually went on to win the election and Trump accused him of fraud without proof, Trump detractors started to joke about how a "sleepy" guy was able to supposedly steal an election.
  • Creepy Joe ^Explanation Videos of Biden hugging, kissing, and sniffing the hair of women and girls (which, while admittedly including women who said they did feel uncomfortable, also included videos of him with relatives which have been taken out of context) have been spread by his critics to paint him as a Dirty Old Man.
    • America's creepy uncle ^Explanation Due to Joe Biden's nickname of "America's Uncle" and the aforementioned meme
  • Joe Biden loves ice cream ^explanation Biden's affinity for ice cream has led to his supporters adopting it as their de facto symbol, with their memes often featuring an iconic photo of Biden eating an ice cream cone while wearing Cool Shades. That photo in particular returned with force after Biden defeated Trump and won the presidency, sometimes being used alongside the "COPE"/"Copium" meme described elsewhere. This also led to jokes (both positive and negative) about him being "vanilla." (Although ironically, according to a WIRED interview, his actual favorite flavor is chocolate chip.)
  • Malarkey ^Explanation Already one of Biden's catchphrases during his time as Vice-President, the word became a popular choice for snowclones of more contemporary memes due to how corny and old-fashioned it sounds. Perhaps not only in spite of, but even because of the fact that younger voters see it as a bit cringeworthy, it's especially common to treat it as a synonym for "cringe".
  • Biden Buries Dogs ^Explanation A meme circulating mostly on Tumblr after a dog walked on-scene during one of Biden's rallies. Soon after, people for some reason started spreading a rumor that Biden had actually had his guards capture and bury the dog, using a reversed .gif-set of a dog being rescued from a hole as proof. While no one took the rumor seriously, a lot of people found it hillarious and brought it up in any conversation involving Biden
• Mike Bloomberg:
  • Bloomberg's Nevada debate performance. ^Explanation Having spent a lot of money campaigning in the Super Tuesday states, Michael Bloomberg managed to land a place in the Nevada Caucus debate. His performance was considered so awful that open season was quickly declared as every candidate took their turn verbally punching him out. Voters also were very unimpressed, as his approval rating as a first choice in the primary dropped 3 points, the largest drop of any candidate.
  • Bloomberg bought the South Carolina audience ^Explanation Bloomberg received a very enthusiastic response in the South Carolina debate in a suspicious turnaround from the Nevada debate, especially since he wasn't even running in South Carolina. The audience applauded everything Bloomberg said even for basic Democratic positions like making marijuana legal, while booing anyone (especially Sanders) who so much as breathed in Bloomberg's direction or badmouthed billionaires. Considering the audience tickets cost at least $1750 minimum and Bloomberg as already spent half a billion dollars on his campaign from his net worth of 60 billion, it's easy to conclude that Bloomberg bought out the audience.
  • Bloomberg spent $500 million just to win American Samoa. ^Explanation  Michael Bloomberg's strategy involved spending half a billion dollars on ad time in various states in the hope that he could break into the field on Super Tuesday, when fourteen states would be holding primaries in one day. However, the only place where he won the most delegates was the territory of American Samoa, and he failed to make much of a dent in the states' primaries. This led to Bloomberg suspending his presidential campaign, realizing that his strategy was a failure.
• Bernie Sanders:
  • Twitch streamer Bernie.^Explanation The announcement that Bernie Sanders' campaign was launching an official Twitch channel immediately led to a deluge of memes, ranging from photoshopped images of Bernie playing various games like Minecraft or anime dating sims, to jokes about Bernie having a "heated gaming moment" on stream and self-destructing his career a la Pewdiepie.
  • "I do know it, I wrote the damn bill!" ^Explanation Being asked about Medicare-for-All, Sanders talked about expanding coverage for Seniors to include dental, hearing, and vision, leading Tim Ryan to say "You don't know that, Bernie" and getting the aforementioned quote in response. This got referenced at the next debate, with Amy Klobuchar saying she did read his bill, and Julian Castro calling it his "damn bill", while both were criticizing it.
  • I am once again asking for your financial support ^explanation Bernie Sanders released a fundraising video in December 2019. This specific quote quickly took off, being used in contexts like people advertising pyramid schemes or college students running out of money. Further mutations replace "for your financial support" with anything else somebody may want others to do.
    • I am no longer asking^Explanation A variation of the above meme featuring a screenshot of the above video photoshopped to look like Bernie is pointing a gun at the viewer. Notably, rival candidate Mike Bloomberg caught wind of this and went on a rant about Bernie supporters.
  • Bernie's psychic powers. ^Explanation A screenshot of a debate between Sanders and Biden had Sanders gesturing while Biden appears to be flinching away. Cue edits of him shooting Sith Lightning at Biden or attacking him with psychic powers, often with a joke about how it's a side effect of "unlimited" healthcare.
  • A Man Goes Home...^Explanation Some of Sanders's detractors like to (most often in a Bait-and-Switch) reference a satirical 1972 essay Bernie wrote which includes a reference to a woman fantasizing about rape.
• Other candidates:
  • Elizabeth Warren has a plan for that. ^Explanation Elizabeth Warren was notably busy proposing a variety of policy measures and how she'd accomplish them during the campaign, and the meme even ascended when Rachel Maddow asked her "Do you have a plan for that?" during the first debate.
  • Cory Booker's side eye. ^Explanation At the first Democratic debate, Senator Cory Booker's Reaction Shot to Beto O'Rourke's Gratuitous Spanish quickly went viral, further compounded by the fact that Booker would later answer a question himself in Spanish. A third candidate, Julian Castro, spoke in Spanish too, but it was a bit less egregious because he's actually Latino and spoke with less of an accent.
  • Girlfriend, you are so on. ^Explanation In an all-around memeworthy debate performance, Marianne Williamson's answer to the question about what the first thing she'd do as president really takes the cake. Most people answered normal things such as those related to universal healthcare or climate change, but her answer was that she'd call the PM of New Zealand, Jacinda Ardern, and that she'd tell Ardern this about her claims that she wants New Zealand to be the best place in the world to raise a child.
  • Birtherism Jr. ^Explanation  After a standout performance in the second night of the debate, Senator Kamala Harris, who is half black/half Tamil Indian, was called not black because her dad is from Jamaica. Trump's oldest son, Don Jr., retweeted something saying, "Kamala Harris is implying she is descended from American Black Slaves. She's not. She comes from Jamaican Slave Owners. That's fine. She's not an American Black. Period." This was roundly mocked as being the same racist attack his dad did on Obama, Like Father, Like Son after all. Jr. would later delete the tweet after it was already a meme.
  • Tulsi Gabbard: "Present" ^explanation Democratic presidential candidate Tulsi Gabbard, who at the time was also a U.S. Representative, refused to vote on impeachment, only signaling that she was there when the impeachment vote happened. Her justification was that, though she believes that Trump has committed impeachable offenses, she thinks that the impeachment debate is too partisan and won't involve herself in it. The Neutrality Backlash was immediate — liberals attacked her for refusing to side with the evidence and for calling supporters of impeachment partisan, and conservatives attacked her for insinuating that Trump deserved impeachment. It also led to many of her supporters jumping ship on her to other presidential candidates. Shortly afterwards, memes flooded social media showing Gabbard in historical or fictional situations in which she refuses to help the heroes in any way with their activities
  • Mayor Pete^Explanation Due to the continuing difficulty people had with properly pronouncing or spelling Pete Buttigieg's name (it's pronounced boot-edge-edge), just about everybody began casually referring to him as "Mayor Pete" (something that Buttigieg gladly encouraged), as the former Mayor of South Bend, Indiana.
    • Secretary Mayor Pete ^Explanation Continuing from the above, after Joe Biden won the primaries and evetually the general election, he appointeed Buttigieg as Secretary of Transportation. After he was confirmed by the Senate, some affectionately joked that they would call him Secretary Mayor Pete, and if he is eventually elected President, President Secretary Mayor Pete.
• The Iowa Caucus.^Explanation The Iowa Caucus - the first Presidential Primary - wound up not getting the results out until almost 2 days later due to their reliance on an app to help streamline things. When the app screwed up, the phone lines were overwhelmed as different precincts attempted to call in their results
  • The company that made the app itself has been subject to jokes, as it was called Shadow Inc., plus the fact that it had sold separate services to the campaigns of Buttigieg, Biden, and a PAC founded by Tom Steyer led to conspiracy theories such as that the Buttigieg campaign alone had paid for the creation of the app, a theory since debunked.
  • Relatedly, Wolf Blitzer was talking to one of the pollsters on-site, who had been on hold for about an hour waiting to report the results. During the interview, he got off hold, and Wolf asked if CNN could listen in - and the poor pollster wound up getting hung up on because he didn't respond swiftly enough when he was taken off hold.

• Sally Yates.^explanation After her refusal to defend the "Muslim ban" EO in courts and her resultant firing by the White House, anti-Trump forces quickly adopted former acting Attorney General Sally Yates as a Memetic Badass who put the country first, especially after footage of her 2015 confirmation hearing popped up where she stated that the AG had a responsibility to say "no" to the President. Yates' reputation continued to grow when the story broke that she warned the White House that Michael Flynn was compromised by the Russians a full month before the phone-call scandal broke.

• Merrick Garland^explanation  After the unexpected death of Justice Scalia Barack Obama nominated Merrick Garland as his replacement....only for the GOP to refuse even considering him for the Supreme Court, using increasingly thin reasoning (mostly that it was too late in Obama's term to nominate a Judge and it should be decided by the presidential election) to prevent him from being considered and to keep the seat open. Fast forward to 2017, when Trump nominated Neil Gorsuch to fill the still-empty seat, and the GOP demanded that Democrats confirm him for the bench. Democrat and liberal feelings toward this development (partly because of Gorsuch's political opinions and partly because of Garland's snub) can be summed up in the following quote from congressman Earl Blumenauer: "I encourage my Senate colleagues to give Neil Gorsuch the same courtesy Senate Republicans gave Merrick Garland". Mitch McConnell also made the request, seemingly forgetting his own hostile treatment of Garland, so it backfired hilariously at him.

• Betsy DeVos^explanation After her embarrassing Senate hearing, Secretary education nominee Betsy DeVos became Donald Trump's most unpopular cabinet nominee. Various memes making fun of her, with Bait-and-Switch Comparison jokes between her and a bear (due to how she argued during her confirmation hearing that guns might be needed in schools to fend off grizzly bears) and comparisons to Harry Potter's Dolores Umbridge, popped up.

• Nordstrom^explanation A national “Grab 'Em By Your Wallet” boycott of retailers carrying products by Trump and his family began in October, in the wake of the "grab 'em by the pussy" line. On February 2, Nordstrom announced it would stop carrying Ivanka's clothing line, due to poor sales. Trump took to Twitter to bash Nordstrom over the retailer’s decision. Company but same idea.

• SETH RICH ^Explanation In a similar vein to Vince Foster's suicide, conspiracy theorists claim the death of DNC staffer Seth Rich (shot during a botched mugging) was actually a deliberate hit as punishment for leaking DNC documents to Wikileaks. Despite repeated debunkings, conservative voices have been adamant in spreading the story (most notably Sean Hannity who still promotes it on his show and Twitter, despite the fact that his home network Fox News has publicly retracted the story). His family’s lawsuit against the network for emotional distress had initially been thrown out but was reinstated in September 2019.

• John Delaney^Explanation A Democratic U.S. House Representative from Maryland who gained attention by making the official announcement for his 2020 campaign for President...in July 2017 (compare this to the previous election, where the earliest declaration was made by Ted Cruz on March 23, 2015), and was met with a wave of tongue-in-cheek support.
  • His resemblance to Will Ferrell's Buddy the Elf (if he were balding) has also been commented on. This second bullet would be acceptable if someone could find evidence of it.

• Matthew Spencer Petersen.^Explanation Nominated by Trump to be a federal district judge, only for the hearing to reveal that he had never tried a case at all.

• DJ ^Explanation At the State of the Union, Trump introduced one individual as "Special Agent Celestino Martinez. He goes by DJ. And CJ. He said 'call me either one'." It became another example of Trump correcting himself by simply saying both things.

• Stormy Daniels ^Explanation  The claim by pornstar Stormy Daniels of having had an affair with Trump (not helped by Trump's lawyer's admission of having paid her the exact same sum she claims she was paid to be quiet about it, despite Trump's lawyer's denial of it having anything to do with the claim) has led to lots of weather-related puns to describe Trump's presidency.

• "John Barron/John Miller/David Dennison" ^Explanation  Trump used these pseudonyms to impersonate his spokesman, divorce Ivana and pay off Stormy Daniels respectively.

• Rudy Giuliani ^Explanation The former mayor of New York has signed up to be Trump's new attorney, but did a terrible job in a FOX News interview, contradicting Trump on the stories of Stormy Daniels and the Russia investigation.

• Melanie ^Explanation On First Lady Melania Trump's birthday, Trump's tweet wishing her a happy birthday had her name misspelled as "Melanie".

• George Conway ^Explanation  Kellyanne Conway is a top aide to Trump that mostly does PR for the administration. Her husband, George Conway, is one of the top conservative lawyers in the country. Since about a year into the administration, George Conway has become a vocal critic of the administration and has a Twitter account where he has amassed almost half a million followers. He even changed his party registration from Republican to Independent in 2018. After a weekend in which Trump went on a Twitter tirade, George Conway started tweeting diagnostic criteria straight out of the DSM about narcissistic and antisocial personality disorders. While Trump had dissed him before, after the DSM tweets, he started ratcheting of his criticism of George Conway without ever calling him by his actual name and even calling him "Mr. Kellyanne Conway" instead, presumably to try to emasculate Conway. His campaign manager tweeted that "Mr. Kellyanne Conway" was just mad because he was not picked for a top job at the Department of Justice and that he had never even met Trump. Conway retaliated by giving the Washington Post documents that showed Trump had used him as a lawyer in 2006 and that he had taken himself out of contention for the job at the DOJ due to his dissatisfaction with the administration. When asked if he cared if he was referred to as "Mr. Kellyanne", he said no because he loves and respects his wife and it would worse to be known as "Individual []", in reference to the aforementioned "Individual 1" meme.

• Pierre Delecto ^Explanation In October, Senator Mitt Romney told a reporter for The Atlantic that he had a secret Twitter account. He made the mistake of giving the reporter enough clues about his account for someone to find it. Ashley Feinberg, who writes for Slate did it and posted her findings. His Twitter account had posts defending himself and likes making fun of his colleagues in the Senate. Everything about the account was a meme for a few days, including his eventual confirmation that he had been busted.

• "You have sacrificed nothing, and no one." ^Explanation  A quote from Khizr and Ghazala Khan, Muslim immigrants whose son, Captain Humayun Khan, was killed in 2004 protecting his troop from a suicide bomber in Iraq. Their speech was universally considered the most powerful moment of both conventions, some comparing it to Welch’s famous call-out of McCarthy. Never seen this as a meme. Also Tear Jerker is NRLEP.
  • …You don't attack a Gold Star family.^Explanation  Donald Trump made callous remarks about the Khan family. His refusal to stop attacking them were viewed by many as a serious Moral Event Horizon, as a number of leading Republicans denounced him while his surrogates scrambled to apologize for him. Even Bill O’Reilly, one of Trump’s biggest supporters, pointed out that bashing the parents of a dead war hero tends to make you look like an asshole. Potholing to Moral Event Horizon is just asking for trouble.

• Flat Rodney Davis. Weblink Only Example.

• Greenland ^Explanation  In August, Trump suggested the idea of making a deal with the Danish government to buy Greenland, despite the fact that Denmark had no interest in selling it (and that Greenland is a nation with its own population). Twitter had a field day mocking him for the sheer ridiculousness of his proposal. It should be noted, however, that Trump was not the first president to buy land (one such example is Jefferson buying the Louisiana Purchase) nor was he even the first president to attempt to buy Greenland (Harry Truman was the first). Greenland itself is not a meme, unless there's some specific meme catchphrase associated with Trump offering to buy it.

• Epstein didn't kill himself. ^Explanation The former financier died in his cell while awaiting trial for his second bout of child sex trafficking charges (having already pled guilty and served 14 months back in 2008 for other such charges), and the official ruling of suicide, in addition to being disputed by his lawyers, was widely doubted by the general public due to the implausible circumstances and alleged "secrets" Epstein might have had on the other rich and powerful people in on the sex ring. As a result, it became popular to randomly assert◊ that◊ Epstein did not commit suicide (and implicitly claim that he was actually murdered in order to silence him), to the point of becoming an Interrupting Meme. This is definitely a meme, but it doesn't belong here on US Politics, I don't think it really has a place anywhere on this site.

• WWIII ^Explanation  After Trump killed an Iranian general on Iraqi soil, Qasem Soleimani, and Iran responded by launching missiles against U.S. bases in Iraq (although no lives were lost in the latter attack), people immediately started predicting World War III. Many memes mocked the idea of the US drafting people to fight, more specifically people with "military experience" from playing Call of Duty, which was also targeted at the "video games cause violence" arguments. Many suggested new ways of draft-dodging, as well as joking about the possibility of imminent nuclear war. Thankfully, at least as of July 2021, the U.S. never went that far with Iran for a major world war in the process there. People have been Chicken Little-ing about WWIII for, like, 75 years now, what makes this event so special or any different?

• First snow of the year! ^Explanation A bizarre tweet from the official White House Twitter posted January 12th 2020 showing snow around the White House. Bizarre in that people in the DC area noted it wasn't snowing at all, and it was too warm to snow (53 F/11.667 C). People had a field day with this baffling lie. Not a meme, just a post people mocked for a day.

• #NeverTrump ^Explanation The name given to a number of Republicans/conservatives who have won fans on the left for being among the few in the GOP to speak out against Donald Trump. Talk show host Charlie Sykes has a reputation as the Only Sane Man among the conservative movement, starting with his take-no-prisoners interview of Donald Trump before the Wisconsin primary, and earned respect from liberals and progressives for his continued #NeverTrump stance and refusal to indulge in the more racist and xenophobic strains of conservatism. Third-party spoiler Evan McMullin has likewise won respect for his more nuanced perspective on LGBT rights (probably due to the fact that his mother is currently married to a woman), his Deadpan Snarker tendencies, and his still-classified past as a CIA operative. More of a general insult, a la senile Biden.
• Portraying Jeb as a Memetic Woobie getting bullied by the other presidential candidates, especially Donald Trump. Largely due to these videos. Basically a weblink only example.

Democratic Primaries:

• "HRC". ^Explanation  A popular nickname for Hillary, common among both her supporters and detractors. Though obviously taken from her initials ("Hillary Rodham Clinton"), it's also a play on the monogram "HRH" ("Her Royal Highness"), poking fun at Clinton's popular perception as "American royalty" (i.e. a shrewd Washington powerbroker who has grown accustomed to holding positions of power). Just a Fan Nickname, which I think we said don't count as memes.
• #IllaryClinton ^Explanation Conspiracy theories have sprung up speculating that Clinton is too ill to be president, citing out of context video clips, random photos and other odds and ends as evidence she has anything ranging from Parkinson’s to dementia. See "Senile Biden".
• Bernie Bros/Brocialists^Explanation  A derisive term for hardcore Bernie supporters, particularly those still pissed about the Democrats throwing their support behind Clinton instead of Sanders. Said supporters are frequently white and/or male. Fandom Nickname.

Democratic National Convention:

• BALLOONS 8D ^Explanation Twitter and social media had a field day with Kaine and the Clintons' dramatic reactions to the DNC's end of convention balloon drop. Seems like a one-day meme.
• Tim Kaine, America's Step-Dad.^Explanation Clinton’s VP pick, Virginia senator Tim Kaine, won many over with his dorky, Nice Guy demeanor at the DNC, becoming the butt of numerous dad jokes from both sides of the aisle on social media. Adorkable and Nice Guy are NRLEP.
• "A man you can bait with a tweet is not a man we can trust with nuclear weapons." ^Explanation  The most frequently repeated line from Clinton’s acceptance speech, referring to Donald Trump’s tendency towards lashing out at any and all perceived slights, no matter how small. General insult. Note: This means removing the entire Democratic National Convention section. C'est la vie. I'll leave it commented out in case any stray memes come out of the woodwork.

General Elections:

• GOD-EMPEROR OF MANKIND ^Explanation Donald Trump, at least according to Redditors and posters on 4chan's /pol/ imageboard. ROCEJ?
• Love Trumps Hate ^Explanation One of Hillary Clinton's biggest slogan, which matches Donald Trump's name, and was later adapted as a slogan for his resistance following the election. Like most things out of the 2016 United States presidential election, it had contentious ramifications. Just a campaign slogan. In general, campaign slogans that are endorsed by their candidates aren't memes.
• Says who? ^Explanation  In a CNN interview, Donald Trump surrogate Michael Cohen challenged anchor Brianna Keilar’s assertion that Trump was performing badly in the polls. Cohen’s denials (and Keilar’s responses) became ripe for mockery. One-day meme.
• #RyeRoll^Explanation  Liberal spox Angela Rye is notorious for her impressive eye takes, usually in response to some particularly ludicrous statement. These takes usually precede a snarky verbal smackdown. Deadpan Snarker is NRLEP. Also this seems needlessly lionizing of her.
• CNN's increasing disdain for Donald Trump's surrogates has been a popular topic on social media sites. Highlights include Anderson Cooper comparing Trump surrogates to 9/11 truthers, Don Lemon laughing in Trump supporter Gina Louden's face when she couldn't name three black people involved in Trump's campaign, and pretty much everything Jake Tapper does. Even the on-screen chyrons are getting in on the act. Not really a meme, just a news network disliking a candidate.
• Katrina Pierson:
  • #KatrinaPiersonHistory^Explanation Donald Trump spokesperson Katrina Pierson became infamous for a number of serious mistakes, first claiming that Captain Khan died when Clinton and Obama were overseeing the Iraq War (he died in 2004, when Bush was still president) and later that Obama invaded Afghanistan (Bush invaded Afghanistan in 2003). Just generally making fun of someone doesn't count as a meme.
  • Armrests^Explanation  In the wake of numerous women accusing Donald Trump of sexual assault Pierson attempted to disprove one of Trump's accusers (who claimed Trump lifted his armrest and groped her during an airplane flight) by saying the plane they were riding had "fixed" armrests. One-Day meme at best.
• Jill, Not Hill ^Explanation By the voters who rather vote for Jill Stein for the first female president over Hillary. Not really a meme.
• Donald Trump frequently turns criticisms other make of him towards Hillary (accusing her of having a bad temperament, calling her a bigot and crazy, and implying Hillary is unfaithful to Bill) leading many critics to comment about Trump engaging in serious psychological projection. ^Explanation This has even spilt over into the scandals surrounding both Trump and Clinton, such as Trump accusing Hillary of using the Clinton Foundation as middleman for “pay-to-play” deals where donors could gain special access to the State Department...only for news to come out that Trump had seemingly paid off Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi to stop her investigation into Trump University using money from the Trump Foundation. The most epic example came out during the Machado controversy, when Trump accused Machado of appearing in a sex tape. Not only was the accusation false (at worst Machado had engaged in a few minutes of hanky-panky on a Big Brother-style reality TV show in Spain) Buzzfeed later dug up Trump’s own appearance in a 2000 softcore porn video. Trump’s projection has become such a given among liberal circles that when Trump accused Clinton of taking drugs during the debates, speculation immediately ensued as to whether Trump himself was on cocaine. Wall of text, not a meme, just things critics say about him.
• There exists an infamous Reddit fan page for Donald Trump called the r/TheDonald. For just 1 year, it became quite memetic in its own right to the point that it got mentioned in the news. Subreddits are not memes.
  • CTR ^Explanation Correct The Record, which is rumored to obtain funding of 6 million towards Reddit, which overnight, r/politics turned from anti-Hillary to pro-Hillary where Redditors are unable to have a proper discussion. More Reddit garbage. Also not really a meme just something that happened.
  • r/redacted ^Explanation A substitute name for r/politics after CTR took over, to the point that TheDonald moderators got a warning by them not to mention their page. Fan Nickname, also more Reddit garbage.
  • Fuck u/spez ^Explanation A criticism from that sub towards the founder for being biased towards their sub for letting moderators in other subs for brigading them without any consequences while specifically changing the algorithm for TheDonald so that their posts (which got around 4,000 likes) won't be seen by people who log on to r/all. Also used in reference to the founder editing a pair of pro-Trump posts he disagreed with. This page got sidetracked on political Reddit for a good long time. No more.
  • Based (insert anybody) ^Explanation A praise for people who done good in their eyes, insert anybody can be anyone. This is just general '10's slang.
  • The Wall got 10 feet higher ^Explanation Some mention this phrase, then the numbers accumulate with trivia about the height; there's a variation about Clinton's purported prison time. Never heard this one, the explanation's kind of confusing, seems like an in-joke from somewhere.
  • The Biggest Loser is the Hoaxing Media ^Explanation  Their utter disdain towards the mainstream media (CNN, Vox, NBC, The New York Times) as they believed that the mainstream media was being blatantly biased against Donald Trump, to the point that they trust TMZ more than the aforementioned news organizations. Result: Despite polls that showed Clinton having a landslide victory, Trump managed to shock everyone, tarnishing the reputation of pollsters. Distrust towards the media isn't really a meme, also the explanation is poorly written.

2016 Presidential Debates:

• Ken Bone ^Explanation The 2nd 2016 presidential debate was a town-hall style debate where the candidates fielded questions from undecided voters. One of the voters was one Kenneth Bone, an earnest and admittedly overweight man with big glasses, a mustache, a red sweater who had a question about the energy crisis. The public at large had taken a shine to him, calling him the only nice part of the debate between Clinton and Donald Trump. He's also gained a bit of Memetic Mutation in the form of Ken Bone facts, which emphasize his "Nice Guy-ness". I missed a "just a person".
• After Donald Trump reminded Muslim Americans to “report when they see something going on", the hashtag #MuslimsReportStuff took off on Twitter, beginning with "I'm a Muslim, and I would like to report a crazy man threatening a woman on a stage in Missouri" (which got nearly 200,000 likes) and often consisted of Muslims reporting irrelevant things and potential Islamophobia instead of the threats of Muslim terrorism. Short lived Twitter trending hashtag.

Third Presidential Debate:

• While Clinton was [X], Trump was [Y].^explanation When Donald Trump tried to call out Clinton on $6 billion in missing State Department funds, Clinton countered his remarks about her 30 years in politics by pointing out some of the highlights of her career and juxtaposing them with what Trump was doing in each decade: "You know, back in the 1970s, I worked for the Children's Defense Fund. And I was taking on discrimination against African-American kids in schools. He was getting sued by the Justice Department for racial discrimination in his apartment buildings. In the 1980s, I was working to reform the schools in Arkansas. He was borrowing $14 million from his father to start his businesses. In the 1990s, I went to Beijing and I said women's rights are human rights. He insulted a former Miss Universe, Alicia Machado, called her an eating machine. And on the day when I was in the Situation Room, monitoring the raid that brought Osama bin Laden to justice, he was hosting the Celebrity Apprentice". Not really a meme, just things Hillary said.
• Egg McMuffin ^explanation Nickname for third-party candidate Evan McMullin, who ran as a conservative alternative to Donald Trump in Utah and Idaho. Fan Nickname.

• When they go low, we go high!^explanation  Common rally cry at Clinton rallies, started by Michelle Obama, asking for Clinton supporters to avoid the insults and vitriol stereotypically associated with Donald Trump. Rally cries aren't really memes. "Go Wildcats" isn't a meme, this shouldn't be either.
  • Don't boo, vote! ^explanation  Another common rally cry at Clinton rallies.
• Economic anxiety ^explanation  Early on during the primaries & general election, journalists and pundits analyzing the Donald Trump phenomenon attributed his support amongst the white working class (particularly men) as due to "economic anxiety" over losing manufacturing jobs to overseas factories and the impact of free-trade policies on local industries. As time went on, however, the rhetoric and behavior of Donald Trump supporters became seen as increasingly racist, sexist, and violent, with reports of screaming Nazi slurs at the press, misogynist merchandise sold at Donald Trump rallies, supporters bearing targets with Hillary's face, the rise of white nationalist militias attempted terrorist attacks by Donald Trump supporters, armed militia groups patrolling polling stations for "voter fraud", promises of violent revolution if Donald Trump loses..., while a Gallup study claims racial isolation was a far more reliable indicator of Donald Trump support than economic status. Anti-Trumpers have since adopted the phrase "economic anxiety" as a sarcastic remark whenever the latest report of Donald Trump-supporter bigotry comes through. Goes waaaaaaay too long about why Trump is bad, and isn't really a meme.
• "TFE." ^explanation Stands for "This Fucking Election". Fan Nickname.
• "THIS IS NOT NORMAL." ^explanation Said repeatedly by many people, including on this very site, throughout the 2016 election season, usually about how something that would normally sink other candidates only increased Donald Trump's fanbase. Later parodied on Saturday Night Live. After the election, when Trump's supporters told protesters to "get over it", his opponents used this phrase to point out that the atmosphere surrounding the left-wing was very different from that of normal losing sides of an election due to Trump's unconventional and controversial campaign. Polls after the election showed that, unlike previous president-elects, almost nobody who supported Clinton rallied behind Trump once the election was over. Not really a meme, and sort of goes off the rails in the explanation.
• Triggering the Libs ^Explanation A phrase used by some conservatives to explain actions that are supposed to upset or trigger liberals. Its also used by the left sarcastically to make fun of right wingers when they do something that only humiliates themselves, like say, dressing up like actual babies in playpens to protest safe spaces. ROCEJ?
• How wild it is watching the election from Europe: Unhip Old Lady vs. Cool Grampa vs. Racist Piece of Corn vs. a serial killer? ^explanation This is a meme about memes. Obviously, for foreigners uninterested in US politics, they would not have the inclination to learn anything about the candidates nor the actual TV news or coverage. However, the election memes were very pervasive (as this page shows) and so if they were on the internet they would get the meme-version of the candidates, whether they wanted to or not. The candidates were most commonly treated on the internet as: an unhip old lady (Hillary Clinton, as she tried to be seen doing cool modern things and with cool modern people, but looking out of place for her efforts), a cool grandpa (Bernie Sanders being the fan favorite of the election, a really awesome old guy, what with his liberal policies, and grandfatherly persona), a racist piece of corn (Donald Trump, as detractors of him consider his policies racist, and his odd hair and orange tan make him look like a piece of corn), and joked to be a serial killer (Ted Cruz, from the meme mentioned above about him being jokingly accused of being the Zodiac Killer). Biased in favor of Bernie.
• Comparing the presidential candidates to characters from fictional franchises — usually with Bernie Sanders as the good guy, Hillary Clinton as a polarizing Wild Card, and the Republicans as villains (with Donald Trump usually paired to the most evil character of the bunch). E.g. a popular one called "Choose" compared Trump to The Joker and Hillary to Two-Face, with Sanders as Batman. Also biased in favor of Bernie.
• Anti-Trumpers often mock him by posting unflattering photos of him, with this one◊ being the most popular. EVERYONE uses unflattering pictures of their opponents.
• "That hurricane was trying to protect us".^explanation After Trump won the election, many users stated that Hurricane Matthew was trying to protect the country — referring to the fact that either people would rather be dead than live through a Trump presidency, or that Matthew could have created conditions that would have given Hillary Clinton the presidency. General insult, also as one can expect from a meme based around a single hurricane it didn't last long.

2017

• Snowflake-in-Chief/President Snowflake^Explanation Nickname used by people to mock Trump's Minor Insult Meltdowns on Twitter and inability to handle criticism, particularly when it's blunt. Just an insult.

  • Extra-funny since Church hasn't sung opera-style in years and has a completely different, She's All Grown Up image now that's the opposite of what old Charlotte Church fans in the USA remember. The Charlotte Church bullet as a whole can stay but this is needlessly thirsty for her, and She Is All Grown Up is NRLEP.

  • #Resist ^Explanation An common rallying cry and slogan for the anti-Trump movement. Frequently accompanied by a picture of Star Wars Princess Leia, who was fresh in the collective consciousness thanks to her actress's recent death at the time. Not really a meme, just a hashtag.'
• Conservative Generation Z ^Explanation Several right-wingers have claimed that Generation Z, the rising generation of teenagers and college-aged adults, would, in stark contrast to the notoriously progressive millennials, rebel against the Democratic Party due to their alleged dissatisfaction with Obama, anger at his allegedly soft stance on Islamic terrorism, and worries about what was seen as an overly expansive big government. It turns out this theory was all based on one shoddily researched study in which conservativism was defined solely through economic issues and apolitical topics such as whether or not someone would get a tattoo. Because of this, liberals have snarkily commented on this study whenever evidence that supports the overwhelming consensus that Generation Z will be a liberal and pluralistic generation like the one before it, such as in the reaction to the appointment of Betsy DeVos as Education Secretary or the aftermath of the Parkland shooting. Not a meme, just snarking.
• "Dress Like A Woman"^explanation  A source leaked that Trump's dress code for the White House demanded that female staffers "dress like a woman", with many of said staffers feeling pressured to wear dresses. Social media quickly responded by re-appropriating the phrase, as thousands of pictures depicting real and fictional women from all walks of life wearing anything and everything. Not a meme, just something people were complaining about.
• Suicide Squad ^explanation Steven Mnuchin, Trump's pick for Treasury Secretary, besides being mainly a banker, was also a film producer, whose credits include said 2016 superhero movie and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, among others. Given that Suicide Squad had already got a polarizing critical reception, this led to headlines like "Genius Behind Suicide Squad Now Fifth in Line For the Presidency", and jokes among Trump critics such as that Mnuchin went from producing one Suicide Squad to joining another, in reference to the Trump Cabinet who was destined for failure. Similar to the names, a movie is not a meme, and this was just a person people were dogpiling on for a few days.
• #KillTheBill ^explanation  Rallying cry for the backlash against the GOP replacement bill for ACA/Obamacare (dubbed "Trumpcare"). Just a hashtag.
• Jon Solo^Explanation  The special election for Georgia's 6th district House representative (formerly held by Tom Price, who vacated the seat to become Secretary of Health) had gained national attention as a bellwether for the power of anti-Trump sentiment. Ordinarily a deep red district but one that swung significantly towards Hillary Clinton due to its changing racial demographics (particularly its growing African-American population) and high percentage of college educated white voters, Democratic candidate Jon Ossoff became the frontrunner after winning the first round but barely missing the 50% + 1 vote he needed to avoid a runoff. This prompted Republican forces to invest heavily against him. One attack ad in particular featured home videos of Ossoff in college going for Halloween as Han Solo alongside other innocuous college activities such as partying and performing in an a cappella group. Ostensibly meant to portray Ossoff as a lazy party animal, the ad ended up winning him new fans who dug the fact that Ossoff had a nerdy, fanboy side. The irony of this is that the attention brought to this race energized the Republican base to vote for Karen Handel in the runoff, and arguably led to Ossoff losing by about 2.5 points to her. However, not even a year and a half later, the Democrat (Lucy McBath) won the seat for its normal term after Handel and the GOP were caught napping after her victory in the special, and McBath beat Handel again by over five points in their 2020 rematch. As for Ossoff, he would go on to defeat David Perdue and earn a seat in the senate in a highly public runoff election that handed the Senate back to the Democrats. Basically "just a name".
• "Cultural Enrichment" ^Explanation While not exclusive to the US, this tends to be the snide commentary from those on the conservative wing in the wake of a terrorist attack — if Muslims weren't allowed into the country, there wouldn't be terrorist attacks. Others are quick to mock this (typically pointing out that it’s not only Muslims or immigrants who commit terrorist attacks, and pointing out that many that there are many (if not more) terrorist attacks committed by people who would agree with the aforementioned right wing rhetoric. Just snark.
• Trump shoving the President of Montenegro out of the way to be at the front of the 2017 G7 summit pack. No explanation
• Tropical Storms Don and Hilary ^Explanation A weak tropical system in the Caribbean formed named "Don", which normally wouldn't have gotten attention...except for the fact that its name was shorthand for that of the president. This, and the fact that a storm named "Hilary" (you know, as in...) was due to form, became political fodder on social media. As of July 19, "Hilary" has yet to form, and because it is forecast to be absorbed by nearby Tropical Storm Greg before it can be given its name, the name may sadly have to wait until long after "Don" is gone. To be fair, neither were named after the president; "Don" was a replacement for Dennis after 2005 (the same year as Katrina) back when George W. Bush was president, and Hilary has been on the Pacific list ever since 1981, a decade before Bill Clinton ever became president. '''Another super-duper short lived meme.
• Ted Cruz and Twitter^Explanation  Ted Cruz (or, allegedly, an aide) accidentally liked stepmom-son incest porn in front of the whole world. On 9/11. Seriously. Was this a meme? The explanation's also just snark.
• #TakeAKnee ^Explanation After Trump tweeted (and later talked about it during a speech) about the NFL players' protests of taking a knee during the National Anthem (namely, that team owners should fire them), many NFL players and several ordinary people started to kneel as a rebuke to these comments, up-to and including team owners, including some who had actually been Trump supporters and campaign donors (who seemingly aren't anymore). Just an anti-Trump protest.
• Thoughts and prayers ^Explanation The typical response that many Republicans give after a mass shooting, which has been heavily criticized as a way to evade discussion about gun control that Democrats often bring up afterwards. While it's been controversial for a long time, it's not until the Las Vegas massacre that the phrase truly became infamous, partially because BoJack Horseman, in an episode released less than a month before that shooting, called out the phrase's usage as an excuse for inaction. Republicans have also used the phrase to criticize Democrats for not taking a hard-line stance on Muslim terrorism long beforehand, but the phrase is much more associated with gun violence nowadays. Just a phrase that people have issues with.
  • Now is not the time to talk about gun control!^Explanation Another common deflection technique used by Republicans, who often accuse Democrats of "politicizing" the attack by bringing up gun control immediately after the shooting. These claims are often dismissed by Democrats, as politicizing a tragedy is generally considered when politicians go off onto irrelevant tangents to push their talking points, rather than addressing matters of great urgency (which is where gun control generally falls). See above.
• Impeach Hillary^Explanation A jab at people who continue to focus their political discourse on attacking Hillary Clinton, despite the fact that the election is long over and that Clinton doesn't hold any public office to be removed from. Just a snarky comment.