Harris campaign turns Trump's favorite weapon against him
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Kamala Harris shakes hands with Donald Trump during the presidential debate in Philadelphia on Sept. 10. Photo: Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images
Former President Trump has long stood out in the political field for his willingness to mock his political opponents — but as the 2024 presidential race enters its final weeks, he's increasingly getting a taste of his own medicine.
Why it matters: The Harris campaign has leveraged the power of memes and social media to reach a wider, younger audience and cast Vice President Kamala Harris and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as funny, relatable, and capable to young voters.
- The campaign now uses those same tools to mock Trump and paint him in the opposite light.
State of play: In a TikTok video posted Sunday, the Harris campaign created a carousel of photos of Trump seemingly poking fun at his fake tan to the tune of Sabrina Carpenter's hit song "Please Please Please," in which she sings about doing her "makeup so nice."
- Another video, also posted Sunday, features one of Trump's rambling answers at an event, and the campaign labeled the former president "delulu" — Gen Z speak for "delusional."
- As the nation braced for Hurricane Milton this month, the campaign posted a TikTok making fun of an old Trump press appearance in which he called a hurricane "one of the wettest we've seen from the standpoint of water."
- When Trump refused to agree to a second presidential debate, the campaign posted a video of Trump overlaid with the sound of squawking chickens.
The big picture: Trump is well known for his love of nicknames for his opponents — from "Crooked Hillary" to "Sleepy Joe" — and often engages in personal attacks against Harris and Walz while on the campaign trail or via Truth Social posts.
- Trump has at times engaged with memes and often shares them on his Truth Social channel, including ones that implied an endorsement from Taylor Swift.
Between the lines: The Harris campaign has appeared to throw Trump off his game. The former president has struggled to generate a nickname that sticks for his opponent.
- Trump has also appeared rattled by the Harris campaign's labeling of him and running-mate Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) as "weird."
- "I happen to be a very solid rock. We're not weird," Trump said last month in a rebuttal.
And it's not just Trump — his campaign has also been slow to capitalize on the power of memes.
- The official Trump War Room account on X doesn't appear to create many memes. In October, it shared just three of its own — two comparing Walz to the Looney Tunes character Elmer Fudd and the third slamming purported shared values between Harris and former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo).
- Instead, the Trump War Room account typically reposts and comments on clips of Harris at events or interviews, slamming her remarks as "word salad" or accusing her of injecting "cringe" into an interaction.
- "If anyone thinks that using emojis is some cutting-edge message technique, they are severely out of touch with reality," Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung told Axios in August in response to some of the Harris campaign's memes.
Zoom out: The Gen Z team behind the Harris campaign's social media presence has used humor to capitalize on viral TikTok trends and break through with younger voters online.
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