What is I Try So Hard to Be His Friend?

It's a catchphrase pulled from a November 2017 tweet by Donald Trump directed at North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

Where did I Try So Hard to Be His Friend come from?

Trump posted the tweet from Hanoi on November 11, 2017 while attending the APEC summit in Vietnam.

What does I Try So Hard to Be His Friend mean?

It's a passive-aggressive fake apology, a denial of an insult Trump had just delivered that reads like a schoolyard non-apology.

How do you use I Try So Hard to Be His Friend?

Users typically swap Kim Jong Un's name for a personal or pop culture target and adjust the fake insult, keeping Trump's original phrasing intact.

Is I Try So Hard to Be His Friend still popular?

The tweet drew heavy attention in November 2017 with more than 587,000 likes in three days, and it's remembered as a classic Trump-era parody template.

I Try So Hard to Be His Friend

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Published August 31, 2026

"I Try So Hard to Be His Friend" is a catchphrase pulled from a November 2017 tweet by U.S. President Donald Trump aimed at North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. Trump's passive-aggressive line, tucked into a tweet where he denied ever calling Kim "short and fat," inspired Twitter users to swap in their own targets, birthing a mock-apology template that ran through the late 2017 news cycle.

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Overview

The joke lives in the shape of Trump's original tweet, a fake denial of an insult he had just delivered, followed by the wistful sign-off "Oh well, I try so hard to be his friend, and maybe someday that will happen"1. The line reads like a schoolyard non-apology dressed up in diplomatic language, which is exactly why copycat versions worked. Parodists kept Trump's phrasing intact and just replaced Kim's name with whoever they wanted to jab.

Common riffs pointed the mock apology at college professors, characters from He-Man and Doctor Who, celebrity feuds, and personal rivalries3. The comedic payoff comes from readers instantly recognizing the source and filling in the missing context, so the parody works without needing a caption or setup beyond the name swap.

Gallery

Origin & Background

Platform

Twitter

Creator

Donald Trump

Date

2017

On November 11, 2017, while attending the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Vietnam, President Trump posted from Hanoi at 7:48 am local time, "Why would Kim Jong-un insult me by calling me 'old,' when I would NEVER call him 'short and fat?' Oh well, I try so hard to be his friend, and maybe someday that will happen!"1. The tweet followed months of insults between the two leaders, including a North Korean Foreign Ministry statement the day before calling Trump an "old lunatic" (translated from Korean)2.

Trump doubled down at a Vietnam news conference the same day, telling reporters that being friends with Kim "might be a strange thing to happen but it's a possibility"1.

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How It Spread

News outlets in the U.S., U.K., Australia, and beyond ran the tweet as a top story, focusing on the "short and fat" descriptor and Trump's sarcastic sign-off1. Coverage framed the exchange as another escalation of the Trump-Kim insult war that had defined much of 20172. Within three days, the original post pulled in more than 130,000 retweets and 587,000 likes3.

On Twitter, users started swapping Kim Jong Un's name for their own targets within days of the post3. Parody versions used the same structure but pointed the mock apology at college professors, characters from He-Man and Doctor Who, and other personal or pop culture rivals.

How to Use This Meme

The format typically keeps Trump's opening intact. Users swap in a target's name in the "Why would [name] insult me by calling me 'X,' when I would NEVER call them 'Y?'" line, then close with "Oh well, I try so hard to be [their] friend, and maybe someday that will happen." Common conventions include picking a target who has already insulted the user, or inventing an insult the target supposedly delivered so the fake outrage lands.