The 2024 campaign reached a new level of absurdity on Thursday, but as one Trumpworld strategist put it: “This is how it’s going to be: 2016 on steroids.” »
It all started with “S Printer Family”, a pseudonymous X account whose publications on President Joe Biden have been repeatedly denied by the AFP news agency.
The account also appears to be the first major account on the platform formerly known as Twitter to share a video showing Biden for a chair so that within hours, MAGA accounts and random internet observers had reached the conclusion that the President of the United States pooped himself – on the 80th anniversary of D-Day, in a public ceremony on the beaches of Normandy, no less – in full view of the world.
RNC Research, the GOP clip platform trying to show all of Biden’s mistakes, gaffes and stumbles, released one of the most widely shared versions of the clip, titled “clumsy.” [teethgrinding emoji]”
The small problem is that the rest of the world, including the French press, didn’t see it that way at all.
Even if Biden grabs a chair in deceptively edited videos may not be the explosive story some MAGA faithful think it should be — whether out of sincere conviction or revenge for pro-Biden accounts, sharing rumors about Donald Trump farting in court or wearing diapers: this is unfortunately a reality that both campaigns must face.
Biden is 81 years old and Trump is 77 years old. Both men face attacks based on their age, their fitness for office and, as the evidence suggests, whether they have control over their bodily functions.
This is the era of political content consumed through Elon Musk’s X, its new spin-off competitors and, above all, young people attracted to TikTok, where Biden and Trump now have campaign accounts.
The Trumpworld strategist, who requested anonymity to speak on a topic Republicans would rather let marinate, said their “2016 on steroids” framework highlights the wildness of the 2024 landscape compared to the last two elections .
Last time, in 2020, there was more content moderation on social media and major tech platforms employed large teams dedicated to this complex practice.
“I don’t know what Biden was doing. It looked weird, but was he shitting his pants? I don’t know,” the strategist said. “It’s the war of influencers on the Internet to spread disinformation or half, half-truths.”
As viral clips, some misleadingly edited, continue to circulate online at the speed of light, part of the Republican Party’s obsession with misinformation, fact-checkers inevitably struggle to catch up .
In Normandy, Biden sat back and did not seem to feel any sort of discomfort.
The Biden campaign declined to comment for this story.
Predictably, the highest levels of the Trump campaign found the saga amusing.
At the end of a long day focused on the Trump campaign and much of the Republican National Committee, Chris LaCivita shared a story from the satirical website Babylon Bee with the headline “Biden drops first bomb on Normandy in 80 years “.
Then, on Friday, Trump went there himself and said of Biden: “He’s going to France and something happened and it’s not good, I don’t know what it is.” East.”
Fittingly, Trump was speaking in an interview posted on TikTok by right-wing activist Charlie Kirk.
Whether or not a clip fiasco could make a material difference in the race, energizing the base or somehow persuading undecided voters, the Trumpworld strategist said it was simply a cost unlucky to do business when difficult news doesn’t reach as many people as it once did. has.
“The good news,” the strategist said, “is that voters don’t make their decisions in isolation, especially on Twitter.”