# Donald Trumps Paper Towel Toss 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 Rico[1]. The image was widely mocked as tone deaf disaster relief and spawned a Reddit photoshop battle plus a wave of basketball jokes[2]. ## 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 Rico[1]. 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 with[2]. 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 itself[2]. Jokes typically pair the photo with basketball callouts like yelling Kobe, or with captions about hurricane relief reduced to a party favor toss[2]. Coverage from outlets including The Daily Dot and Time helped cement the image as one of the defining visuals of the Puerto Rico response[3]. ## 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 survivors[1]. 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 throw[2]. 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 Towels[4][2]. The subreddit battle was covered directly in the Daily Dot writeup as part of the online reaction[2]. In the days after, mainstream and pop culture outlets including The Daily Dot, UpRoxx and Time published articles about the meme wave around the toss[3][5]. 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 visuals[3]. ## How to Use 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 ### What is Donald Trumps Paper Towel Toss? It is a viral 2017 photo and meme of President Donald Trump throwing paper towel rolls jump shot style into a crowd of Hurricane Maria victims during a relief visit to Puerto Rico[1]. ### Where did Donald Trumps Paper Towel Toss come from? The source image was taken on October 3rd, 2017 by Associated Press photographer Evan Vucci at a relief event in Puerto Rico and was first widely tweeted by Wall Street Journal editor Tom Namako[1]. ### What does Donald Trumps Paper Towel Toss mean? It is shorthand for tone deaf, performative disaster relief, mocking the contrast between a devastated island and Trump treating paper towels like a party favor toss[2]. ### How do you use Donald Trumps Paper Towel Toss? The still is often used as a reaction image for cheap symbolic fixes to serious problems, and it was heavily photoshopped in a r/photoshopbattles thread started by Redditor RaboKarabek[4][2]. ### Is Donald Trumps Paper Towel Toss still popular? It is a classic Trump era political meme that keeps resurfacing whenever Puerto Rico's Hurricane Maria recovery or Trump's disaster response record comes back into the news cycle[3][2]. ## References 1. [https://twitter.com/AlanYuhas/status/915281524819398656]() 2. [https://www.dailydot.com/unclick/trump-paper-towel-memes/]() 3. [https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/donald-trumps-paper-towel-toss]() 4. [https://www.reddit.com/r/photoshopbattles/]() 5. [https://time.com/]() --- Source: https://meme.com/memes/donald-trumps-paper-towel-toss Published by meme.com — The Internet Meme Library