Early Sunday morning, the President of the United States of America, Donald J. Trump, stumbled upon a some video footage that tickled his fancy, and decided the best course of action was to share the meme with the rest of the world.
The meme in question concerns CNN, a cable news outlet that has made him not at all Mad Online of late. In the short clip, the president (really) is pictured tackling an individual outside the ring of a pro wrestling match. But, in lieu of a human head, the person on the receiving end of President Trump's clothesline has CNN's trademark logo perched atop his shoulders as if to suggest that he has defeated the network in a physical battle.
Take a look.
It is unclear where the president located this meme, but it was posted in the pro-Trump subreddit r/The_Donald four days ago, and appears have to have been cobbled together by a user named "HanAssholeSolo," using footage shot during Wrestlemania 23 when Trump fought and then later shaved the head of WWE chairman and CEO, Vince McMahon, in a match dubbed the "Battle of the Billionaires."
The meme marks the latest escalation in a series of social media broadsides lobbed at CNN by the president, who is reportedly a grown adult. On Saturday, he tweeted, "I am thinking about changing the name #FakeNews CNN to #FraudNewsCNN!" a promise that served as President Trump's pinned tweet until this morning.
On Tuesday he retweeted a rejiggered CNN logo with the letters "F-N-N" and an explanation of the reworked acronym, "Fake News Network" that had been created by a 16-year-old Grand Theft Auto Glitch YouTuber named Jeff Tutorials and then tweeted at the president. (Tutorials declined to provide his real name when interviewed by the Daily Beast.)
Prior to today, there are no recorded instances of either President Obama or President George W. Bush dallying in memes of any kind, though President Obama would share videos and other imagery from both his official account and the @POTUS account, nor did they ever suggest that acts of violence directed towards members of the media are acceptable.
The WWE did not respond to a request for comment prior to publication.
Update: CNN has issued the following statement.
