Donald Trumps Tennis Photo — Donald Trump in red cap and white tennis outfit swinging a racket on a court

Donald Trumps Tennis Photo

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Published August 17, 2026

Donald Trump's Tennis Photo is a 2000 Getty Images photograph of the future president playing tennis at Mar-A-Lago in semi-translucent white shorts that show the outline of his underwear. The image went viral in June 2017 after Deadspin resurfaced it, sparking a wave of Photoshop battles, parody illustrations and thirst-joke edits across Reddit, Instagram and Twitter.

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Overview

Donald Trump's Tennis Photo is a Getty Images shot of Donald Trump playing tennis at Mar-A-Lago in an all-white outfit, with the back view catching the outline of his underwear through his thin shorts1. The picture bounced around Reddit, Instagram and Twitter in mid-2017 as raw fodder for Photoshop battles, thirst jokes and parody art2.

The meme is less a single joke and more a template. Editors swap Trump into pop culture scenes, splice his backside onto other bodies, or caption the original with lines like "One Thicc Bih" and "Ain't no one vote Trump for his policies"3. The humor leans on the contrast between the seriousness of the U.S. presidency and a very unflattering athletic snapshot from 17 years earlier2.

Origin & Background

Platform
Getty Images (source photo) / Reddit (viral spread)
Date
2017

The source image was taken on February 13th, 2000 at Mar-A-Lago, part of a Getty Images set of Donald Trump playing tennis in tiny white shorts1. It sat mostly unnoticed for years until sports blog Deadspin published it on June 22nd, 2017 in a post titled "This Shitty Tennis Player Would One Day Be President," describing the Getty archive as a "treasure trove" and inviting readers to "enjoy the butt pics"2.

How It Spread

Later the same day, Redditor santorumsandwich posted the shot to r/photoshopbattles asking users to remix it, and the thread pulled in more than 1,300 points and around 170 comments in its first week4. A separate post by NachoLawbre on r/pics climbed past 38,000 points and 4,800 comments within six days2.

On June 24th, Redditor GasCucksMemeWarNow reposted the image to r/dankmemes with the caption "Ain't no one vote Trump for his policies"3. The following day, Instagram user adam.the.creator uploaded a photoshop stitching Trump's backside onto an Al Sharpton selfie, which racked up around 74,000 likes in four days3. On June 26th, YouTuber Aidy turned the image into a Ditty song calling Trump "One Thicc Bih"2. Two days later, artist Shadman tweeted a parody illustration recasting Trump as a female anime character, gathering roughly 5,800 likes and 990 retweets within 24 hours2.

How to Use This Meme

The template is typically used in two ways. Editors either Photoshop Trump's backside into unrelated scenes, celebrity selfies or album covers, or they slap thirst-style captions like "One Thicc Bih" or "T H I C C policies" over the original Getty shot3. It works best as a political burn where the joke is the visual itself rather than any added text2.

Frequently Asked Questions