2018 Russia United States Summit

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The 2018 Russia United States Summit was the July 16th, 2018 Helsinki meeting between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin whose joint press conference sparked a wave of #ImpeachTrump tweets, a viral "would/wouldn't" meme, and jokes about the Adidas soccer ball Putin handed Trump on stage.

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Overview

The 2018 Russia United States Summit refers to the July 16th, 2018 meeting in Helsinki, Finland between U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, and the online reaction that followed1. The two spent about two hours alone with only their interpreters before walking out for a joint press conference that produced the meme material1.

At the podium, Trump declined to endorse the U.S. intelligence community's finding that Russia had interfered in the 2016 election, saying he did not "see any reason why" Russia would be responsible1. That single sentence, delivered next to Putin, became the core clip that got sliced up, subtitled, and dunked on across Twitter and Reddit for days3.

How It Spread

Within hours the hashtag #ImpeachTrump was trending on Twitter, and a Reddit thread on r/news titled "Trump sides with Russia against FBI at Helsinki summit" from user acore8694 pulled more than 54,000 points and 4,300 comments in a day3. On the pro-Trump subreddit r/The_Donald, a counter-post by richmomz titled "Trump and Putin Collude for World Peace" gathered around 2,600 points3. A New York Times Opinion cartoon called "Trump Bites," which staged a bedroom fantasy between the two leaders, was widely criticized as homophobic, with @pfpicardi's rebuttal picking up over 22,000 likes3.

The next day Trump held a follow-up appearance claiming he had misspoken, saying the sentence should have been "I don't see any reason why it wouldn't be Russia"3. That correction became its own format: the hashtag #wouldnt trended as users rewrote historical moments by swapping "would" for "wouldn't," including a joke from singer Richard Marx that he meant "wouldn't" in the lyrics of "Right Here Waiting"3. Photographer Tom Brenner's shot of Trump's notes, showing "THERE WAS NO COLLUISION" written in black marker, racked up roughly 15,000 likes in 24 hours3.

The soccer ball kept the story alive for another week. Senator Lindsey Graham tweeted it should be checked for listening devices, and on July 25th Bloomberg reported the ball contained an NFC chip that could theoretically be used to push malware, though the Chaos Computer Club's Linus Neumann noted Trump would have to actively install it3. The Bloomberg piece hit the front page of r/politics with about 920 points that afternoon3.

How to Use This Meme

The most portable format from the summit is the "wouldn't" swap: take a famous line, quote, or lyric, insert or remove a "n't," and present the flipped version as a belated correction. It typically works best with lines where the reversal is absurd on its face, like Bush's "Mission Accomplished" or a love song chorus3. The soccer ball and "listening devices" jokes are commonly recycled whenever a world leader hands another leader a physical gift on camera3.

Frequently Asked Questions

2018 Russia United States Summit

2018eventclassic

The 2018 Russia United States Summit was the July 16th, 2018 Helsinki meeting between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin whose joint press conference sparked a wave of #ImpeachTrump tweets, a viral "would/wouldn't" meme, and jokes about the Adidas soccer ball Putin handed Trump on stage.

trump memes political satire memes press conference memes hashtag memes 2018 memes

Overview

The 2018 Russia United States Summit refers to the July 16th, 2018 meeting in Helsinki, Finland between U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, and the online reaction that followed1. The two spent about two hours alone with only their interpreters before walking out for a joint press conference that produced the meme material1.

At the podium, Trump declined to endorse the U.S. intelligence community's finding that Russia had interfered in the 2016 election, saying he did not "see any reason why" Russia would be responsible1. That single sentence, delivered next to Putin, became the core clip that got sliced up, subtitled, and dunked on across Twitter and Reddit for days3.

How It Spread

Within hours the hashtag #ImpeachTrump was trending on Twitter, and a Reddit thread on r/news titled "Trump sides with Russia against FBI at Helsinki summit" from user acore8694 pulled more than 54,000 points and 4,300 comments in a day3. On the pro-Trump subreddit r/The_Donald, a counter-post by richmomz titled "Trump and Putin Collude for World Peace" gathered around 2,600 points3. A New York Times Opinion cartoon called "Trump Bites," which staged a bedroom fantasy between the two leaders, was widely criticized as homophobic, with @pfpicardi's rebuttal picking up over 22,000 likes3.

The next day Trump held a follow-up appearance claiming he had misspoken, saying the sentence should have been "I don't see any reason why it wouldn't be Russia"3. That correction became its own format: the hashtag #wouldnt trended as users rewrote historical moments by swapping "would" for "wouldn't," including a joke from singer Richard Marx that he meant "wouldn't" in the lyrics of "Right Here Waiting"3. Photographer Tom Brenner's shot of Trump's notes, showing "THERE WAS NO COLLUISION" written in black marker, racked up roughly 15,000 likes in 24 hours3.

The soccer ball kept the story alive for another week. Senator Lindsey Graham tweeted it should be checked for listening devices, and on July 25th Bloomberg reported the ball contained an NFC chip that could theoretically be used to push malware, though the Chaos Computer Club's Linus Neumann noted Trump would have to actively install it3. The Bloomberg piece hit the front page of r/politics with about 920 points that afternoon3.

How to Use This Meme

The most portable format from the summit is the "wouldn't" swap: take a famous line, quote, or lyric, insert or remove a "n't," and present the flipped version as a belated correction. It typically works best with lines where the reversal is absurd on its face, like Bush's "Mission Accomplished" or a love song chorus3. The soccer ball and "listening devices" jokes are commonly recycled whenever a world leader hands another leader a physical gift on camera3.

Frequently Asked Questions