A lot has happened in the world since Robert De Niro unapologetically said “f*ck ’em” of Fox News and its seemingly diehard support of President Donald Trump following Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s announced impeachment proceedings. For starters, the Ukraine scandal that triggered the U.S. House’s impeachment inquiry has been dwarfed by numerous other related scandals. In other words, it seems the White House has repeatedly sought the help of foreign diplomats and intelligence agencies for political gain at home. Unsurprisingly, Trump isn’t happy about all the bad press.
Most recently, he railed against the media during a gaggle with Finnish President Sauli Niinistö. This generated plenty of reactions and commentary, of course, but it was all quickly dwarfed by a video that Trump posted on Twitter in the early evening. Ever heard of the “Photograph” meme? The TL;DR version is someone takes a screenshot from the Nickelback song’s music video — when singer Chad Kroeger holds up a framed photograph and sings “look at this photograph” — and replaces the framed image with something else. Trump’s social media team did just that with Joe Biden.
Trump is obviously alluding to the Vice President’s alleged Ukraine connections, but the very fact that his official Twitter account decided to use the “Photograph” meme — complete with a clip from Nickelback’s song — is what’s melting people’s brains online.
You know your popularity is low when you need NICKELBACK to help you.
— Jesse McLaren (@McJesse) October 2, 2019
Didn’t expect today to end with the thought “I wonder if Nickelback will sue the President” https://t.co/MZN2vrQezz
— Washington Post Universe Guy (@davejorgenson) October 2, 2019
https://twitter.com/andizeisler/status/1179514203691896833
https://twitter.com/amyfiscus/status/1179510870625394688
Oh god is nickelback going to have to release a statement about Trump
— Asawin Suebsaeng (@swin24) October 2, 2019
https://twitter.com/jaredlholt/status/1179509315226521600
And, yes, many think it’s a crime worthy of impeachment.
Trump tweeting out a Nickelback video should be an impeachable offense.
— Scott Dworkin (@funder) October 2, 2019
OMG is that NICKELBACK ?!?
IMPEACH, IMPEACH !!! https://t.co/VRIuasNYUi
— Dennis Herring (@dcherring) October 2, 2019
I feel like the use of Nickelback will only add to an impeachment inquiry tbh.
— Sabrina Siddiqui (@SabrinaSiddiqui) October 2, 2019
In the end, it was Trump revealing that he’s a Nickelback fan that got him impeached and removed from office https://t.co/08u6qOScZb
— Yashar Ali 🐘 (@yashar) October 2, 2019
This isn’t the first time that Trump has tried to use memes via his official accounts to promote his policies or attack his political enemies, but… still. Nickelback?
hasn't nickelback suffered enough
— Dave Itzkoff (@ditzkoff) October 2, 2019
Nickelback is currently touring in Brazil. As of this writing, they have not issued a statement concerning Trump’s tweeted meme.