Thank You Kanye, Very Cool! — Parody Trump tweet where Kanye's quoted post is a childlike stick-figure drawing of Kanye and Trump

Thank You Kanye, Very Cool!

2018catchphraseclassic

Published September 30, 2026

Thank You Kanye, Very Cool! refers to a five-word tweet Donald Trump sent to Kanye West on April 25th, 2018, after West called the president his "brother" with "dragon energy." The oddly flat reply from a sitting head of state became a copypasta and photoshop template within a day, spawning Bee Movie edits, Infinity War crossovers and stick-figure fan art across Reddit and Twitter.

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Overview

Thank You Kanye, Very Cool! is a five-word reply Donald Trump tweeted to Kanye West on April 25th, 2018, thanking the rapper for a post that called Trump his "brother" and described the pair as sharing "dragon energy"1. The flatness of the response, the kind of thing a distant uncle might reply to a birthday text, clashed hard with the intensity of West's original message, which is most of the joke.

Online, the phrase mostly lives as a photoshop template. Editors keep the layout of the West-Trump exchange intact and swap West's tweet for something absurd (a stick-figure drawing, a Bee Movie announcement, a Marvel crossover) while leaving Trump's "Thank you Kanye, very cool!" reply untouched underneath25. The reply's blandness works as a punchline no matter what nonsense sits above it.

Origin & Background

Platform
Twitter (source tweet) / Reddit (viral spread)
Creator
Donald Trump; Reddit user garrett0803
Date
2018

On April 25th, 2018, Kanye West tweeted at Donald Trump calling him his "brother" and describing their shared "dragon energy," pulling in roughly 297,000 likes and 76,500 retweets within a day6. Later that same day, Trump replied from @realDonaldTrump with only "Thank you Kanye, very cool!" The reply itself picked up more than 321,800 likes and 99,800 retweets in twenty-four hours1.

The meme format followed almost immediately. On April 26th, 2018, Redditor garrett0803 posted a photoshopped version of the exchange to /r/me_irl in which West's tweet was replaced by a crude stick-figure drawing of Kanye and Trump holding hands2.

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How It Spread

The garrett0803 stick-figure photoshop was reposted the same day to /r/dankmemes under the title "Dragon Energy," pushing the format past the /r/me_irl audience3. Around the same time, the parody account @Seinfeld2000 posted an edit in which West's tweet was rewritten as an announcement that he was producing an "x rated" version of the Bee Movie, which was then screenshotted and reposted around Reddit6.

That Bee Movie version reached the front page of /r/MemeEconomy, and a Marvel-themed edit titled "Most ambitious crossover event in history" that pasted an Infinity War reference over West's tweet hit the front page of /r/The_Donald on April 25th7. Twitter user @tweetmommybop also used the exchange to criticize Trump for thanking West while ignoring the so-called "Waffle House hero" from a shooting days earlier6.

In the days after, mainstream outlets ran explainers on both West's original tweets and Trump's reply, keeping the exchange in circulation well past the initial Reddit wave6.

Timeline

2018-04-25

Kanye West tweets that Trump is his "brother" and that the pair share "dragon energy."

2018-04-25

Donald Trump replies from @realDonaldTrump with "Thank you Kanye, very cool!"[1]

2018-04-25

An "Infinity War Crossover" edit of the exchange reaches the front page of /r/The_Donald[7].

2018-04-26

Redditor garrett0803 posts a stick-figure photoshop of the exchange to /r/me_irl[2].

2018-04-26

The stick-figure image is reposted to /r/dankmemes as "Dragon Energy"[3].

2018-04-26

A Bee Movie edit of the exchange, credited to @Seinfeld2000, reaches the front page of /r/MemeEconomy[5].

How to Use This Meme

The template typically keeps Trump's actual "Thank you Kanye, very cool!" reply as the bottom half and swaps West's tweet on top for anything jarring, wholesome, obscene, or nonsensical. Common edits replace West's message with a fake Bee Movie announcement, a Marvel crossover pitch, or a hand-drawn illustration, letting Trump's flat thanks read as an absurd response to whatever was pasted in25.

Frequently Asked Questions