Screenshot of a 4chan thread criticizing the Potato Trump meme as the worst meme ever seen

Potato Trump

2019image macrodead

Published September 23, 2026

In early 2019, an anonymous edit surfaced showing Donald Trump with his head shrunk down to a small lumpy shape, producing what /pol/ users started calling Potato Trump. The image spread on 4chan during the 2020 Democratic primary run-up, mostly shared by posters backing Andrew Yang over the sitting president3. It became a persistent Yang Gang shitpost and one of the odder anti-Trump edits to come out of that election cycle.

trump memes photoshop memes 4chan memes political satire memes face swap memes

Overview

The Potato Trump image works by shrinking Trump's head to a tiny, oddly-shaped lump on top of his suit, keeping enough of his face visible that viewers still recognize him but making the composition look deliberately amateurish3. That ugly, obviously-fake quality is the joke; Yang Gang posters treated the edit like a bad-on-purpose reaction pic aimed at then-President Trump. Threads pairing the image with pro-Yang text or absurdist political captions turned it into a running /pol/ inside joke through spring 2019, tied to the wider Yang Gang meme push that helped Andrew Yang draw attention during his Democratic primary campaign1.

Origin & Background

Platform
Twitter (initial post) / 4chan (viral spread)
Date
2019

The exact creator of the Potato Trump edit is not documented3. The earliest known posting of the image came on January 8, 2019, when the Twitter account @BigFitGroyper attached it to a message about Senator Lindsey Graham and Israel3. The image had limited visibility until users on 4chan's /pol/ board2 picked it up two months later, during the run-up to the 2020 Democratic primary.

How It Spread

On March 14, 2019, someone posted the Potato Trump image to /pol/ under the title 'This is the worst meme I have ever seen,' accusing Yang Gang users of forcing it onto the board3. That first thread framed Potato Trump as a Yang Gang project, which fit the broader Yang Gang push drawing attention to Andrew Yang's outsider campaign1. A week later, on March 21, 2019, an anonymous /pol/ user opened a dedicated 'Potato trump thread' that pulled in over 90 replies before being archived3. The image faded after Yang dropped out of the primary in February 20201, and it now reads as a historical footnote from the 2020 Yang Gang meme run on 4chan2.

Timeline

2019-01-08

Twitter user @BigFitGroyper posts the Potato Trump image alongside a message about Senator Lindsey Graham and Israel, the earliest known public appearance of the edit.

2019-03-14

The image is submitted to 4chan's /pol/ board under the title 'This is the worst meme I have ever seen,' with the poster accusing Yang Gang users of forcing the meme.

2019-03-21

An anonymous /pol/ user opens a dedicated 'Potato trump thread' that pulls in over 90 replies before being archived.

2020-02

Andrew Yang drops out of the Democratic primary, and interest in Potato Trump fades along with the wider Yang Gang meme run.

How to Use This Meme

Users typically start with the low-resolution photoshopped image of Trump's shrunken head and post it on 4chan or Twitter with captions mocking Trump or promoting Andrew Yang3. Common convention pairs the image with absurdist political text rather than sharp commentary, keeping the joke rooted in how bad the edit looks.

Frequently Asked Questions