Trump's First Order of Business — Trump holding executive order folder displaying 'anime is now illegal' text with his signature.

Trump's First Order of Business

2017photoshop memeclassic

Published October 3, 2026

In January 2017, newly inaugurated President Donald Trump was photographed holding up a folder displaying his freshly signed executive order, giving the internet a blank canvas it could not resist. Within 48 hours, Redditors were photoshopping anything from Dickbutt to Pokemon cards into the folder, spawning a template that produced the @TrumpDraws Twitter account and a flood of political image macros.

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Overview

Trump's First Order of Business is a photoshop template built around a video of President Donald Trump proudly displaying the open folder containing a freshly signed executive order to press photographers in the Oval Office1. The pose, folder held high, signature exposed, offered an obvious editable surface, which the internet treated as an invitation2.

Edits typically swap the signed order for something absurd or juvenile: a Dickbutt drawing, a binder of Pokemon cards, a page declaring 'anime is now illegal'3. The joke works by pairing the solemn ritual of a presidential signing with content that undercuts it, and the template is flexible enough that creators barely need captions to land the gag.

Origin & Background

Platform
Reddit (template origin) / Twitter (viral spread via @TrumpDraws)
Creator
Redditor guygoald
Date
2017

The source footage comes from January 23rd, 2017, when Trump signed a batch of executive orders including a memorandum withdrawing the United States from the Trans-Pacific Partnership3. That same day, Redditor guygoald posted an animated GIF to /r/HighQualityGifs that replaced the executive order with a Dickbutt illustration, which climbed to more than 25,000 upvotes with an 89% approval rate within 48 hours4.

The following day, a Redditor named foozefookie dropped a clean cutout template of Trump holding the folder into the comments of a /r/memeeconomy repost, which turned the gag into a reusable format other users could grab in seconds3.

How It Spread

On January 24th, 2017, the original Dickbutt GIF was reposted to /r/gifs and /r/memeeconomy, pulling in roughly 34,300 and 6,600 votes respectively inside a single day3. Variants moved quickly to /r/dankmemes, where Redditor suddenly_swimmy posted a Pokemon card binder edit and marty_eraser posted the 'anime is now illegal' version, which hit about 18,200 upvotes at 90% approval5.

The format jumped platforms on January 31st when @TrumpDraws launched on Twitter, animating the signing clip so Trump appeared to be unveiling childlike crayon drawings of cats, houses and hand turkeys1. The anonymous Los Angeles visual-effects artist behind the account told New York Magazine they went to bed with 10 followers and woke up with 8,000, eventually hitting around 167,000 within the first day2.

The Daily Dot covered the GIFs the same week, framing them as a natural evolution of the 'Famous Person Holding Up Easily Editable Object' format that had previously turned Trump's campaign signs into Arthur fist and Harambe memes1. Twitter also packaged the @TrumpDraws run into an official Twitter Moment the day the account launched3.

Timeline

2017-01-23

Trump signs a batch of executive orders including the TPP withdrawal, generating the source photo and video[3].

2017-01-23

Redditor guygoald posts the Dickbutt GIF edit to /r/HighQualityGifs, the earliest viral version of the meme[4].

2017-01-24

Redditor foozefookie posts a clean photoshop template of Trump holding the folder in /r/memeeconomy comments[3].

2017-01-24

The 'anime is now illegal' edit by marty_eraser hits /r/dankmemes and climbs to roughly 18,200 upvotes[5].

2017-01-31

The @TrumpDraws Twitter account launches and gains around 167,000 followers in a day with animated GIFs of Trump holding up childish drawings[2].

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