Biden campaign takes online troll fight to Trump's home turf
Joe Biden’s campaign team is trolling Donald Trump on his home turf.
Biden’s meme-makers have been posting to the Trump-owned Truth Social website since October, The Atlantic reports. The official @Biden-HarrisHQ account has about 245,000 Truth followers (compared with Trump’s 7 million) and is “akin to a satanic metal band playing at a Christian-rock festival,” Ali Breland writes.
On Friday, the account posted a meme taking aim at Trump’s running mate, Ohio Senator J.D. Vance, posting a photo of a plane with the caption, “J.D. Vance writing a book about hard working Americans getting left behind by the rich,” followed by a photo of the plane taking off and leaving said “hard working Americans,” on the runway.
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Within an hour, the meme had more than 200 comments, nearly all ridiculing the account and many with copy-and-pasted clapbacks such as “the left can’t meme.”
Breland, however, disagrees, writing “the Truth Social posts stand out in that they are actually pretty good. Biden takes on a meme alter-ego known as “Dark Brandon,” and channels a confidence critics say his off-line persona often lacks.
“Dunking on your rival is a solid move,” Breland writes. “Nailing your rival’s signature dunk in their home arena is even better.”
Biden’s Truth Social meme team is led by his deputy campaign manager Rob Flaherty, the Atlantic reports, and while it may have started strategically, it’s also allowed the Democrats to “troll Trump as much as possible.”
“It’s an attempt to walk into MAGA territory, flex on your haters and talk smack,” Breland writes.