# Donald Trump Donald Trump is an American real estate developer, reality TV host, and politician whose brash Twitter feed and rally speeches turned him into a heavily-memed public figure across the 2010s. Everything from the 2013 'Wow' recursive tweet chain to his 2015 El Chapo Twitter beef to a 2017 account blackout kept him at the center of viral internet moments. ## Overview Donald Trump, born June 14, 1946, is an American real estate developer and reality TV host best known for NBC's The Apprentice, whose @realDonaldTrump account launched March 18, 2009 powered his transition from tabloid celebrity to a heavily-memed political fixture and three U.S. presidential runs, winning in 2016 against Hillary Clinton, losing to Joe Biden in 2020, and winning again against Kamala Harris in 2024[3]. The Trump-as-meme story runs through his tweets, his rally speeches, and his gossip-column beefs. USA Today/Gallup put him at number six on its annual most-admired-men list in December 2011, tied at one percent of the vote[8]. That year Trump had already made headlines for considering a presidential run and briefly offering to host a Republican primary debate, on top of long-running public spats with multiple media personalities[8]. ## How It Spread The "Wow" chain of February 2013 was one of the first viral games built entirely around a Trump tweet. 9to5Mac senior editor Mark Gurman replied "Wow." with a link to a Trump post trashing ABC's Shark Tank while hyping The Apprentice's ratings on February 25, 2013, and Arizona student Erik Schmidt tweeted "Wow" back at Gurman with a link, kicking off a recursion that Twitter users kept chaining until The Verge traced patient zero on February 28[1]. Gurman told the outlet he "didn't intentionally start the chain" and had spotted himself at the end of it by accident when he first clicked through[1]. Trump's June 16, 2015 campaign kickoff at Trump Tower produced another round of viral clips, most notably his line about Mexico "sending" rapists, criminals, and drug dealers across the border[2]. At a South Carolina rally on July 21, 2015, Trump read out Republican Senator Lindsey Graham's private cell number and encouraged supporters to "try it," after Graham had called him a "jackass" the previous day, prompting Gawker to publish Trump's own mobile number on August 3 under the headline "Call Donald Trump's Cell Phone and Ask Him About His Important Ideas"[3]. That same summer, drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman escaped from Mexico's Altiplano maximum-security prison on the night of July 11, 2015, last seen in the showers of his cell block before officers noticed him missing[5]. Trump seized on the escape as ammo for his border talking points, and an account allegedly belonging to one of Guzman's sons fired back with a threat that translated roughly as "Keep fucking around and I'm gonna make you swallow your bitch words"[2]. Trump contacted the FBI's Manhattan office the following Monday to look into the account[4]. ## How to Use Trump meme formats typically pull from three wells: his own tweets, freeze frames from Apprentice-era footage, and clips from campaign rallies. Common conventions include screencapping his all-caps outbursts under confused replies, remixing his "Make America Great Again" slogan onto absurd images, and pairing his facial expressions with unrelated captions. The 2013 "Wow" chain also lived on as a template for recursive Twitter link jokes that dead-end at a Trump post[1]. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### What is Donald Trump? Donald Trump is an American real estate developer and reality TV host, born June 14, 1946, who USA Today/Gallup ranked as the sixth most admired man alive in December 2011 and who became a heavily-memed public figure through his combative Twitter feed[8]. ### Where did Donald Trump come from? The Trump internet meme trajectory took off with his October 24, 2012 YouTube video promising Obama $5 million for his college records[6] and the February 2013 "Wow" Twitter chain traced back to one of his tweets[1]. ### What does Donald Trump mean? As a meme, Donald Trump usually refers to his tweets, rally rants, and celebrity feuds recycled into reaction images and remix videos, like the 2013 "Wow" chain that traced back to his Shark Tank complaint[1]. ### How do you use Donald Trump? Users typically screenshot his all-caps tweets, remix his "Make America Great Again" slogan onto absurd images, or chain replies that dead-end at a Trump post like the 2013 "Wow" template documented by The Verge[1]. ### Is Donald Trump still popular? USA Today/Gallup ranked Trump sixth on its December 2011 most-admired-men list at one percent of the vote, and he has been generating headlines since 2011 for his political runs, celebrity feuds, and Twitter posts[8]. ### Who started the 2013 "Wow" Twitter chain that traced back to Trump? 9to5Mac senior editor Mark Gurman was patient zero, who first replied "Wow." with a link to a Trump post about The Apprentice and Shark Tank on February 25, 2013[1]. ### Why did Trump ask the FBI to investigate a tweet? After drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman escaped Mexico's Altiplano prison on July 11, 2015[5], an account allegedly run by one of Guzman's sons threatened Trump on Twitter, and Trump contacted the FBI's Manhattan office the following Monday[4]. ### What was Trump's $5 million charity challenge to Obama? On October 24, 2012, Trump released a YouTube video pledging to donate $5 million to any charity Obama chose if the president would produce his college applications, college records, and passport records by Halloween[6]. ### How did Obama respond to Trump's charity challenge? Obama laughed it off on The Tonight Show With Jay Leno, joking that his feud with Trump went back to their childhood in Kenya with "constant run-ins on the soccer field," and adding that Trump "wasn't very good and resented it"[7]. ### What did Trump say about Mexican immigrants in his 2015 campaign speech? In his June 2015 campaign announcement at Trump Tower, Trump called Mexican immigrants "rapists" and drug dealers, remarks that led Univision, NBC, Macy's, and other companies to end their business ties with him[4]. ## References 1. [https://www.theverge.com/2013/2/28/4039718/wow-all-the-way-down-donald-trump-sparks-twitters-latest-weird-meme]() 2. [https://www.dailydot.com/irl/donald-trump-el-chapo-twitter-threat-mexican-immigrants/]() 3. [https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/people/donald-trump]() 4. [https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/donald-trump-asks-fbi-investigate-el-chapo-related/story?id=32422035]() 5. [https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-33497301]() 6. [https://www.huffpost.com/entry/donald-trump-announcement_n_2009914]() 7. [https://www.huffpost.com/entry/barack-obama-tonight-show-donald-trump_n_2014205]() 8. [https://www.huffpost.com/entry/donald-trump-sixth-gallup-most-admired-list_n_1172416]() --- Source: https://meme.com/memes/donald-trump Published by meme.com — The Internet Meme Library