Pissgate The Pee Tape

2017eventdeclining

Pissgate refers to the January 2017 political scandal around an unverified allegation in a former British spy's dossier that Donald Trump paid prostitutes to urinate on a Moscow hotel bed once used by Barack Obama. CNN broke the intelligence-briefing story on January 10, 2017, BuzzFeed published the full dossier hours later, and Twitter turned it into a wave of hashtag jokes like #PissGate and #PEEOTUS the same night.

trump memesscandal memesconspiracy memespolitical satire memeshashtag memes

Overview

Pissgate, also called the Pee Tape, points to one specific allegation buried inside a 25-page dossier compiled by a former British MI6 officer about Donald Trump's alleged ties to Russia2. The passage claimed that during a 2013 visit to Moscow, Trump hired prostitutes to perform a 'golden showers' act on the bed of the presidential suite at the Ritz-Carlton, the same room Barack Obama and the First Lady had stayed in during their official trip that year1.

The story lit up on January 10, 2017, when CNN reported that both President Obama and President-elect Trump had received a classified briefing on the memo, delivered by the four senior-most US intelligence chiefs including FBI Director James Comey and CIA Director John Brennan1. BuzzFeed News published the full unverified dossier roughly an hour later so readers could judge the claims for themselves2. The FBI was still investigating the credibility of the memos at that point, and BuzzFeed acknowledged the document contained clear errors, including a misspelling of the Russian conglomerate Alfa Group as 'Alpha Group' throughout2.

How It Spread

BuzzFeed's post drew more than 1.3 million views inside three hours, and Twitter reactors piled in with the hashtags #PissGate, #goldenshowers, and #PEEOTUS while a dedicated /r/PissGate subreddit went up the same day4. On 4chan's /pol/ and Reddit's /r/The_Donald, users passed around fake 'highlighted' scans of the dossier stuffed with joke accusations, and an alternative theory took hold that the golden showers passage had been planted as a hoax by Anonymous pranksters through Republican strategist Rick Wilson, who publicly denied the story on Twitter4.

Trump's own reaction came the same night in an all-caps tweet reading 'Fake news, a total political witch hunt!' that pulled 72,000 likes and 25,000 retweets within a day4. His attorney Michael Cohen tweeted 'I have never been to Prague in my life' to deny a separate claim in the memo, which other Twitter users mocked by posting photos of random objects paired with denials of visiting Prague. At a January 11 press conference, Trump called the allegations 'false' and 'fake news,' branded BuzzFeed a 'steaming pile of garbage,' and refused a question from a CNN reporter2.

The story stayed live well into 2018. On January 9, 2018, Senator Dianne Feinstein released the full transcript of Fusion GPS co-founder Glenn Simpson's Senate Judiciary Committee testimony after Republicans issued a criminal referral against Steele, and Twitter users seized on Simpson's discussion of possible Russian blackmail as backing for the tape being real5. Michael Cohen filed a defamation lawsuit against BuzzFeed, Fusion GPS, and Simpson that same day2. In April 2018, an excerpt from Comey's book 'A Higher Loyalty' revealed that Trump had personally asked Comey to investigate the pee-tape claim, telling him he was a 'germaphobe' and that 'there's no way I would let people pee on each other around me, no way'6.

How to Use This Meme

Pissgate posts typically pair the 'golden showers' framing with existing Trump reaction formats: joke edits of dossier pages with fake highlighted lines, sparkling Twitter graphics, or Trump staring reaction shots. The Michael Cohen 'I have never been to Prague in my life' tweet became its own template, with users posting photos of objects and denying visits to Prague, Barcelona, and other places4. #PEEOTUS is common shorthand any time Trump-Russia coverage flares back up4.

Frequently Asked Questions

Pissgate The Pee Tape

2017eventdeclining

Pissgate refers to the January 2017 political scandal around an unverified allegation in a former British spy's dossier that Donald Trump paid prostitutes to urinate on a Moscow hotel bed once used by Barack Obama. CNN broke the intelligence-briefing story on January 10, 2017, BuzzFeed published the full dossier hours later, and Twitter turned it into a wave of hashtag jokes like #PissGate and #PEEOTUS the same night.

trump memes scandal memes conspiracy memes political satire memes hashtag memes

Overview

Pissgate, also called the Pee Tape, points to one specific allegation buried inside a 25-page dossier compiled by a former British MI6 officer about Donald Trump's alleged ties to Russia2. The passage claimed that during a 2013 visit to Moscow, Trump hired prostitutes to perform a 'golden showers' act on the bed of the presidential suite at the Ritz-Carlton, the same room Barack Obama and the First Lady had stayed in during their official trip that year1.

The story lit up on January 10, 2017, when CNN reported that both President Obama and President-elect Trump had received a classified briefing on the memo, delivered by the four senior-most US intelligence chiefs including FBI Director James Comey and CIA Director John Brennan1. BuzzFeed News published the full unverified dossier roughly an hour later so readers could judge the claims for themselves2. The FBI was still investigating the credibility of the memos at that point, and BuzzFeed acknowledged the document contained clear errors, including a misspelling of the Russian conglomerate Alfa Group as 'Alpha Group' throughout2.

How It Spread

BuzzFeed's post drew more than 1.3 million views inside three hours, and Twitter reactors piled in with the hashtags #PissGate, #goldenshowers, and #PEEOTUS while a dedicated /r/PissGate subreddit went up the same day4. On 4chan's /pol/ and Reddit's /r/The_Donald, users passed around fake 'highlighted' scans of the dossier stuffed with joke accusations, and an alternative theory took hold that the golden showers passage had been planted as a hoax by Anonymous pranksters through Republican strategist Rick Wilson, who publicly denied the story on Twitter4.

Trump's own reaction came the same night in an all-caps tweet reading 'Fake news, a total political witch hunt!' that pulled 72,000 likes and 25,000 retweets within a day4. His attorney Michael Cohen tweeted 'I have never been to Prague in my life' to deny a separate claim in the memo, which other Twitter users mocked by posting photos of random objects paired with denials of visiting Prague. At a January 11 press conference, Trump called the allegations 'false' and 'fake news,' branded BuzzFeed a 'steaming pile of garbage,' and refused a question from a CNN reporter2.

The story stayed live well into 2018. On January 9, 2018, Senator Dianne Feinstein released the full transcript of Fusion GPS co-founder Glenn Simpson's Senate Judiciary Committee testimony after Republicans issued a criminal referral against Steele, and Twitter users seized on Simpson's discussion of possible Russian blackmail as backing for the tape being real5. Michael Cohen filed a defamation lawsuit against BuzzFeed, Fusion GPS, and Simpson that same day2. In April 2018, an excerpt from Comey's book 'A Higher Loyalty' revealed that Trump had personally asked Comey to investigate the pee-tape claim, telling him he was a 'germaphobe' and that 'there's no way I would let people pee on each other around me, no way'6.

How to Use This Meme

Pissgate posts typically pair the 'golden showers' framing with existing Trump reaction formats: joke edits of dossier pages with fake highlighted lines, sparkling Twitter graphics, or Trump staring reaction shots. The Michael Cohen 'I have never been to Prague in my life' tweet became its own template, with users posting photos of objects and denying visits to Prague, Barcelona, and other places4. #PEEOTUS is common shorthand any time Trump-Russia coverage flares back up4.

Frequently Asked Questions