WASHINGTON (AP) — Whether it's Joe Biden smiling as “Dark Brandon” or Donald Trump's face superimposed over a scene from HBO's “Game of Thrones,” both presidential elections this year have embraced the lingua franca of social media: digital memes.
The campaigns of the Democratic and former Republican presidents have frantically created and shared content to shape the narrative around them, with the Biden campaign even recently posting a job ad seeking a meme page manager.
With tens of millions of people using social media as their primary source of information, the battle of the memes could influence who wins the November election. Many Americans have said they're not excited about a rematch between Biden and Trump, and their growing digital habits make it harder to reach people through traditional political advertising venues like print and television.
Memes can be a more radical way to get a political point across quickly than text or long videos, but online gaffes have hurt candidates and sparked major controversy.
Let's take a look at how memes are affecting the presidential election.
First, what is a meme?
Memes have been around for longer than you might think.
The term “meme” was coined in 1976 by British evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins to refer to information that is imitated and shared, such as a slogan, behavior, or idea.
With the rise of internet culture, digital memes have skyrocketed in popularity. Memes often take the form of visual content, such as images or videos, and convey a message that can be understood by people with a certain knowledge or affiliation to a certain group. Memes do not have to be funny or satirical, but they are more likely to be shared widely. Although politicians these days intentionally try to create and share memes, some of the best-known memes were born unintentionally.
One of the earliest memes of the modern era was the frenzied shouting of former Vermont Governor Howard Dean on the night of the Iowa caucuses. Videos and images of the Democrat's guttural yell were widely shared, drawing ridicule and damaging his already struggling presidential bid.
When President Barack Obama moved into the White House in 2009, a photo of outgoing President George W. Bush with the message “Do you miss me yet?” was widely shared among Bush supporters.
A 2011 photo of then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton wearing sunglasses and staring at her phone became a popular meme the following year, known as “Texts from Hillary,” purportedly showing her sending sarcastic text messages to politicians and celebrities.
“When done well, you can tap into something that a group agrees with or distrusts — something that connects with your audience,” said Rebecca Ortiz, an associate professor of advertising at Syracuse University who studies the impact of memes around political identity.
How will the two candidates approach memes?
The Biden campaign is creating its own stock of photos and videos to distribute across Biden's official accounts, and Biden campaign officials said advisers are considering partnering with third-party creators in the coming months to reach followers of users they believe support the Biden message.
Campaign officials hope that by building relationships with outside creators, undecided or still unsure voters will jump on Biden's message if they see it from another account they already follow.
“We've been working really hard to run a digital program that's appropriate for a candidate, and a candidate probably isn't going to spend all of their time on Twitter. Absolutely not,” said Clark Humphrey, a senior adviser for digital persuasion for the Biden campaign. “So I think we've been really inventive about how to leverage all the different parts of the internet to allow candidates to be where they need to be without them having to physically go to those places.”
Trump, who was a heavy social media user even before he ran for president, has long enjoyed sharing memes, as have his online political advisers and adult children. His eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., is a frequent meme sharer and calls himself the “Meme Wars General” on Instagram.
The campaign did not provide details about its digital team or the use of memes. Spokesman Steven Chang issued a statement blaming Biden for gaffes and apparent moments of confusion in his videotaped speech.
“Joe Biden becomes a walking, talking meme every time he appears in public,” Chang said.
What are some examples of content?
Biden's team welcomed “Dark Brandon,” appropriating right-wing conspiracy memes that portray the president as a threatening force and using the nickname “Brandon,” which has become a joke derogatory term for the president among conservatives.
“Dark Brandon” originally portrayed Biden as a shadowy menace, but Democrats have co-opted it, using the image as a meme to mock conspiracy theories about Biden's influence over events like the Super Bowl and portray Biden as a powerful force to promote his own accomplishments.
The campaign is now selling signs, mugs, baby onesies and even coffee bags depicting Biden as “Dark Brandon” with red laser eyes.
Trump and his staff regularly share memes effusively praising the president, including one depicting him leading a troupe of dancing Bollywood soldiers.
In April, just before a total solar eclipse spread across North America, President Trump shared a meme video on his Truth Social account that included footage of people wearing eclipse glasses looking up to the sky and cheering as the sky darkens, before cutting to footage of the sun and a large silhouette of President Trump blocking the sun as people cheer.
And both the Biden and Trump campaigns quickly cut potentially embarrassing videos of their opponents and post them online within minutes, injecting those moments into the social media bloodstream and often driving traditional news coverage.
When has a meme gone wrong?
Trump and his campaign frequently share content created by outside meme creators, often targeted at his base, and sometimes later disavow the content to stoke outrage.
In 2016, Trump shared a meme about Clinton that appeared to show a Star of David on a pile of cash, evoking anti-Semitic tropes. Trump deleted the image but called it “a basic star that sheriffs often use.”
Last month, Trump sparked backlash after sharing a video meme on Truth Social that included a reference to a “United Empire” among hypothetical headlines if he were to win the November election.
The “United Empire” meme was created by a group of outside meme creators who The New York Times reported worked with the Trump campaign. The Daily Meme Team describes itself as “America's Best MAGA Members” and “Trump's Online War Machine,” and their work has sometimes been shared by Trump himself.
The Trump campaign said the video was shared by staff who saw it online and were unaware of the reference. The Trump campaign denied working with the group but said it appreciated the efforts of the outside creators.
Brenden Dilley, who heads the Dilley Meme Team, did not respond to emailed questions about the group's activities but posted a response to X saying he would be available for an interview in January 2025 after the next president is inaugurated.
Whose memes are the most prevalent?
That's tricky: Both candidates have tens of millions of followers across social media networks, as well as campaign accounts, but tracking how many times a particular meme has been shared, or remixed and shared again, is difficult.
Trump has more social media followers than Biden across Instagram, TikTok, TruthSocial (Trump's social media network) and X, though Biden has only used X once since his account on the site then known as Twitter was locked after the Jan. 6 riot.
The only post Trump has made since then has been a mugshot of his arrest, which also became a meme.
