"Straightforward From Here" — julian peppers tweet with SpongeBob's flea-in-a-box plan rewritten for Trump as seven straightforward steps

"Straightforward From Here"

2017catchphrasedead

Published October 20, 2026

On February 15, 2017, CNN political commentator Sally Kohn tweeted a numbered five-step plan to install Hillary Clinton as president and ended it with the line "Straightforward from here." Twitter users spent the day mocking her supposedly simple route, and by that afternoon the sign-off was lifted as a template for parody plans with wildly impossible steps.

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Overview

A standard parody follows Kohn's numbered scaffold, ends with the deadpan sign-off "Straightforward from here," and fills the five steps with wildly complicated or physically impossible actions1. Posts ranged from political setups like impeaching every official in the line of succession to goofy riffs involving time travel or breakfast cereal. New York Magazine's Select All summed up the formula by writing that "all you need is a list of steps, any steps, and you're in business"1.

Humor relies on the deadpan closer, so the final step usually carries the punchline, something like "Hillary becomes president" or "profit." Twitter users from both the left and the right riffed on the format in the hours after Kohn's original tweet, playing on the contrast between the orderly list style and the obviously nonsensical plan2.

Origin & Background

Platform
Twitter
Creator
Unknown
Date
2017

On February 14, 2017, The New York Times reported that members of Donald Trump's campaign had been in repeated contact with Russian intelligence officers during the year before the 2016 election3. The story landed shortly after National Security Adviser Michael Flynn resigned over his own undisclosed Russian contacts4. The following morning, February 15, CNN political commentator Sally Kohn posted a five-step list on Twitter outlining how Hillary Clinton could still take the Oval Office, including impeaching Donald Trump, impeaching Mike Pence, and holding an unprecedented special election1. Kohn capped the tweet with the words "Straightforward from here."

How It Spread

Replies piled up within minutes from users on both the left and the right, with critics pointing out that none of the suggested moves met any reasonable definition of straightforward2. Parody posts filled Twitter by midday on February 15, each using the numbered-list structure and tagging the end with the signature line1. New York Magazine's Select All ran a same-day roundup documenting the pattern and joking that the format would "join Dat Boi in death" once the news cycle moved on1.

Daily Caller followed with its own story that same day, noting under its headline that Twitter users had told Kohn to be quiet2. Kohn herself returned to the site that afternoon to say the plan had been written sarcastically5. Peak circulation of the format sat inside the two-day window of February 15 and 16, 2017.

Timeline

2017-02-14

The New York Times reports that Trump campaign aides had repeated contact with Russian intelligence officials in the year before the 2016 election.

2017-02-15

Sally Kohn posts her five-step plan on Twitter ending with the line "Straightforward from here," and parody posts begin filling the site within hours.

2017-02-15

New York Magazine's Select All and Daily Caller publish same-day coverage of the backlash and the parody format.

2017-02-15

Sally Kohn tweets that her five-step plan was meant sarcastically.

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How to Use This Meme

Posters typically open with a numbered list, write short declarative steps, and finish with the deadpan tag line "Straightforward from here"1. The common convention runs from a plausible-sounding first step to an absurd final step, so step 5 usually carries the punchline. Users often mix political and apolitical setups, from undoing legislation to arranging first dates.

Frequently Asked Questions