The ocher-tinted candidate may not actually be disqualified, but that isn’t stopping Twitter from celebrating the idea.
Since Donald Trump announced his presidential campaign, the initial dismissal that greeted him—that he was just out for publicity—gradually gave way to the media narrative that despite his popularity, Republicans couldn’t possibly nominate him. Even Fox News, never one to shy away from the GOP’s verbal atrocities, has assumed the Trump campaign is a joke—that his position at the top of the polls will erode and either Marco Rubio or Jeb Bush will win the nomination.
And while Trump has earned his fair share of criticism for support of Muslim identification cards and the believe that Mexico intentionally sends criminals across the U.S. border, the strategy of simply letting him fade clearly hasn’t worked. Instead, it seems only to have crystallized his right-wing support, and further emboldened his wing-nut political demagoguery.
But public sentiment seems to be shifting beneath Trump’s feet after his proposal to ban Muslims from traveling into and within America. Today, the White House said his comments on Muslims should “disqualify” him from the presidency, while Speaker of the House Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) joined the anti-Trump chorus, saying, “This is not conservatism.”
Not too surprisingly, the internet reacted to the White House’s “disqualify” statement, turning it into a meme. #TrumpIsDisqualifiedParty is showing up all over social media, with various internet users attaching the hashtag to video clips and GIFs of celebrities, as well as fusing the meme to other popular internet memes.
One of the best might just be #TrumpIsDisqualifiedParty attached to “The Miz Girl” or “Scowley”, a 9-year-old girl named Cayley who was seen on WWE scowling after Randy Orton lost at the WWE Championship in 2010.
Then, of course, there is Kanye West dancing to cumbia in a #TrumpIsDisqualifiedParty meme on Vine.
Some users were disappointed that Trump was not, in fact, actually disqualified.
Though the finest #TrumpIsDisqualifiedParty entry might just be a shot at CNN for trying to make any event into news in the most sensational way possible.
The #TrumpIsDisqualifiedParty isn’t going to dent Trump’s candidacy. But it seems to be part of a much larger sentiment that may just signal a critical mass growing against the right-wing political bait he casts out into the media. A critical mass that will eventually bring him, and his poll numbers, back down to earth.