Donald Trumps Paper Towel Toss

2017viral photoclassic

Donald Trump's Paper Towel Toss is a viral news moment and meme from October 2017, when the president was photographed shooting paper towel rolls jump-shot style into a crowd of Hurricane Maria survivors in Puerto Rico1. The image was widely mocked as tone deaf disaster relief and spawned a Reddit photoshop battle plus a wave of basketball jokes2.

trump memesviral photo memesphotoshop memespolitical satire memes2017 memes

Overview

Donald Trump's Paper Towel Toss is a viral news photograph and joke format built around footage of President Donald Trump lobbing rolls of paper towels into a crowd of Hurricane Maria victims during his October 2017 visit to Puerto Rico1. In the still image, Trump is mid throw with his arm cocked like a basketball player taking a jump shot, which is exactly the framing the internet ran with2.

The meme works on the gap between the setting, a devastated island with no power and limited water, and the goofy game show energy of the toss itself2. Jokes typically pair the photo with basketball callouts like yelling Kobe, or with captions about hurricane relief reduced to a party favor toss2. Coverage from outlets including The Daily Dot and Time helped cement the image as one of the defining visuals of the Puerto Rico response3.

How It Spread

Within hours the photo blew up on Twitter, with users including @ShaunKing and Samantha Bee's @FullFrontalSamB posting the image and condemning the toss as disrespectful to survivors1. Others leaned into the visual gag, riffing that Trump looked like he was taking a jump shot and joking that he must be yelling Nixon instead of Kobe after each throw2.

On Reddit, user RaboKarabek posted the photo to r/photoshopbattles, kicking off a thread of edits that reframed Trump as a basketball player, a game show host, and a Marie Antoinette style figure captioned Let Them Eat Towels42. The subreddit battle was covered directly in the Daily Dot writeup as part of the online reaction2.

In the days after, mainstream and pop culture outlets including The Daily Dot, UpRoxx and Time published articles about the meme wave around the toss35. The image kept resurfacing every hurricane season and every time Puerto Rico's recovery came back into the news, which is why it is still one of the most referenced Trump disaster visuals3.

How to Use This Meme

People typically use the still frame of Trump mid throw as a reaction image for tone deaf gestures, cheap fixes to serious problems, or performative charity. A common convention is to swap the paper towels for other objects in photoshops, or to add basketball style captions like Kobe or crowd play by play. The image often shows up in political threads when officials respond to a disaster with a symbolic handout instead of substantive aid.

Frequently Asked Questions

Donald Trumps Paper Towel Toss

2017viral photoclassic

Donald Trump's Paper Towel Toss is a viral news moment and meme from October 2017, when the president was photographed shooting paper towel rolls jump-shot style into a crowd of Hurricane Maria survivors in Puerto Rico1. The image was widely mocked as tone deaf disaster relief and spawned a Reddit photoshop battle plus a wave of basketball jokes2.

trump memes viral photo memes photoshop memes political satire memes 2017 memes

Overview

Donald Trump's Paper Towel Toss is a viral news photograph and joke format built around footage of President Donald Trump lobbing rolls of paper towels into a crowd of Hurricane Maria victims during his October 2017 visit to Puerto Rico1. In the still image, Trump is mid throw with his arm cocked like a basketball player taking a jump shot, which is exactly the framing the internet ran with2.

The meme works on the gap between the setting, a devastated island with no power and limited water, and the goofy game show energy of the toss itself2. Jokes typically pair the photo with basketball callouts like yelling Kobe, or with captions about hurricane relief reduced to a party favor toss2. Coverage from outlets including The Daily Dot and Time helped cement the image as one of the defining visuals of the Puerto Rico response3.

How It Spread

Within hours the photo blew up on Twitter, with users including @ShaunKing and Samantha Bee's @FullFrontalSamB posting the image and condemning the toss as disrespectful to survivors1. Others leaned into the visual gag, riffing that Trump looked like he was taking a jump shot and joking that he must be yelling Nixon instead of Kobe after each throw2.

On Reddit, user RaboKarabek posted the photo to r/photoshopbattles, kicking off a thread of edits that reframed Trump as a basketball player, a game show host, and a Marie Antoinette style figure captioned Let Them Eat Towels42. The subreddit battle was covered directly in the Daily Dot writeup as part of the online reaction2.

In the days after, mainstream and pop culture outlets including The Daily Dot, UpRoxx and Time published articles about the meme wave around the toss35. The image kept resurfacing every hurricane season and every time Puerto Rico's recovery came back into the news, which is why it is still one of the most referenced Trump disaster visuals3.

How to Use This Meme

People typically use the still frame of Trump mid throw as a reaction image for tone deaf gestures, cheap fixes to serious problems, or performative charity. A common convention is to swap the paper towels for other objects in photoshops, or to add basketball style captions like Kobe or crowd play by play. The image often shows up in political threads when officials respond to a disaster with a symbolic handout instead of substantive aid.

Frequently Asked Questions