UPDATE: Oct. 3, 2019, 7:28 p.m. BST Donald Trump’s tweet wielding Nickelback’s “Photograph” video has now had its media disabled “in response to a report by the copyright owner.” Touché.
UPDATE: Oct. 3, 2019, 11:29 a.m. EDT Donald Trump’s Nickelback meme has now been uploaded to the official White House YouTube channel.
UPDATE: Oct. 3, 2019, 11:43 a.m. EDT Hi, us again! Trump’s Nickelback meme has now been removed from the White House YouTube channel because of a copyright violation.
UPDATE: Oct. 3, 2019, 2:05 p.m. EDT The saga continues with confirmation that Warner Music Group requested the meme be taken down.
How on earth is this freaking day not over yet?
After hours of watching Donald Trump — the president of an entire nation — emotionally melt down in public and on Twitter, it seemed like things couldn’t get much more bizarre.
At 5:07 p.m. ET, however, the president said “hold my beer Diet Coke” to himself and dared to tweet a life-ruining, sanity-ending, national nightmare of a NICKELBACK MEME.
When I got a mobile notification alerting me that Trump had tweeted a video of Biden alongside the words “LOOK AT THIS PHOTOGRAPH!” I simply assumed he didn’t understand the difference between a photo and a video. But after clicking play and seeing Nickelback guitarist and lead vocalist Chad Kroeger singing the band’s meme-tastic 2005 hit “Photograph,” I knew we were doomed.
He really just went and tweeted a Nickelback meme.
The video opens with a clip of Biden saying that he’s never spoken to his son about overseas business dealings. Then Kroeger — singing Nickelback’s song “Photograph” — comes into the picture holding, well, a picture frame.
The video zooms in on the frame, which contains a 2014 photograph of Biden and his son Hunter holding golf clubs alongside a “Ukraine gas exec” named Devon Archer, who reportedly served with Hunter on the Ukrainian gas company board.
According to Know Your Meme, the “Photograph” meme had a somewhat controversial start in 2007. Since then, it’s been used by YouTubers, Vine stars, and more to make jokes while also mocking the deeply-ridiculed Canadian rock band.
But the fact that Trump chose to tweet a Nickelback meme in the year 2019 as President of the United States about a fellow 2020 candidate in attempt to distract from his own impeachment controversy was simply too much for people to handle.
The only thing this news cycle was missing was Nickelback. https://t.co/ShiixbLmg1
— Laura J. “𝔣𝔞𝔦𝔯 𝔠𝔬𝔫𝔱𝔯𝔞𝔠𝔱 𝔫𝔬𝔴” Nelson (@laura_nelson) October 2, 2019
The Nickelback meme taken down on Twitter due to “a report by the copyright owner.” According to Lumen — an online database that tracks copyright claims and notices— Warner Music Group sent Twitter a takedown notice on Wednesday.
Trump’s meme was also uploaded to the White House YouTube channel, however, and was live as of 11:30 a.m. ET. As of 11:46 a.m. ET the video appears to have been removed from YouTube because it contained copyrighted content owned by Warner Music Group.
Image: screenshot / Youtube
As the Associated Press’ Zeke Miller noted on Twitter, since the Nickelback meme appears on the same White House channel responsible for sharing national news updates and broadcasting conferences it was likely produced by the White House itself, which would make it a taxpayer-funded video.
What a time to be a living American taxpayer, eh?