Large Adult President Loves Memes, Fan Accounts

President Trump is tweeting memes again.

It began Tuesday night, just as Cindy Hyde-Smith won the special election runoff in the Mississippi senate race. Before Trump congratulated Hyde-Smith, he took a strange shot at Brenda Snipes, the departing Broward Country, Florida, election official who came under fire as the state counted outstanding votes following the November midterms. The high-profile races in question were both decided well over a week ago, but Trump on Tuesday tweeted that Snipes was “just spotted wearing a beautiful dress with 300 I VOTED signs on it,” adding sarcastically that he was “just kidding” and that “she is a fine, very honorable and highly respected voting tactician.” The post was in reference to a doctored photo of Snipes covered in “I Voted” stickers, implying that she had rigged the election in favor of the Democrats.

He was just getting started. On Wednesday morning, after falsely claiming that Special Counsel Robert Mueller “is viciously telling witnesses to lie about facts,” the president retweeted four posts from @The_Trump_Train, a fan account, including a meme accusing a host of prominent Democratic figures of treason. Among them were former presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama.

pic.twitter.com/FWJRNzBUB3

— The Trump Train 🚂🇺🇸 (@The_Trump_Train) November 28, 2018

Also photoshopped behind bars is current Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, a Republican appointed by Trump. According to Politico, the Department of Justice declined to comment on the president accusing the department’s second-in-command of treason.

In the middle of the image, mouth agape and with her hands raised, is Hillary Clinton. As speculation about what may come of Mueller’s investigation has intensified in recent weeks, Trump has become fixated on the woman whom he has for some reason allowed to live rent-free in his head since defeating her in the 2016 election. Many of Trump’s Twitter tirades about the Russia probe since the midterms have keyed on a belief that the special counsel is “protecting Crooked Hillary” and other Democrats. “The Mueller Witch Hunt is a total disgrace,” he tweeted Tuesday night before taking aim at Snipes. “They are looking at supposedly stolen Crooked Hillary Clinton Emails (even though they don’t want to look at the DNC Server), but have no interest in the Emails that Hillary DELETED & acid washed AFTER getting a Congressional Subpoena!”

The FBI of course already investigated Clinton’s emails. The White House even cited unfair treatment of Clinton prior to the election as the reason Trump fired James Comey as FBI Director last May. Nevertheless, the president has been trying to redirect the Russia probe back onto Clinton’s emails for roughly two years now, and it doesn’t seem like he’s going to let up anytime soon. He’s also resumed attacking Clinton for reasons unrelated to the investigation. On Sunday, he went after the Clinton Foundation, apropos of nothing.

Clinton Foundation donations drop 42% – which shows that they illegally played the power game. They monetized their political influence through the Foundation. “During her tenure the State Department was put in the service of the Clinton Foundation.” Andrew McCarthy

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 25, 2018

After retweeting @The_Trump_Train Wednesday morning — including a false statistic about how much federal assistance is given to illegal immigrants (and a claim that legal immigrants also should not receive federal aid) — Trump retweeted month-old posts from right-wing trolls Dan Bongino and Charlie Kirk highlighting a comment Clinton made while being interviewed by tech journalist Kara Swisher, who had confused former attorney general Eric Holder and Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ). Again, this is irrelevant to anything currently in the news, as was Trump’s Wednesday retweet of a Mike Pence fan account that on Thanksgiving expressed gratitude that Clinton did not win the presidency.

I'm thankful for every day Hillary Clinton is not President!

— VP FAN (@MikePenceVP) November 23, 2018

It’s probably not a coincidence that Trump’s preoccupation with Clinton has subsumed his Twitter feed just as Mueller’s investigation has come back into focus. Trump’s perceived dominance over Clinton (despite her winning the popular vote) is foundational to his stature as president, and if that dominance were to be in some way undermined by the special counsel’s investigation — say, if it found that the Trump campaign was working in accordance with WikiLeaks and/or Russia — it could mean a devastating blow to Trump’s mythos. Trying to discredit Clinton, even two years after the election, is Trump’s way of fortifying that election’s legitimacy at a moment when it is under heavy attack from Mueller, whom he continues to describe is “conflicted” and “angry” and “a total disgrace.”

Following his retweet spree on Wednesday morning, it was reported that in the written answers Trump gave to questions submitted by the special counsel, he denied having any knowledge of the Trump Tower meeting between Donald Trump Jr. and a number of Kremlin-connected individuals, or that he spoke to Roger Stone regarding WikiLeaks’ plan to release the hacked emails of Democratic figures prior to the election. Based on what has been made public, it’s almost impossible to believe the former claim, and pretty hard to believe the latter, as well. Depending on what evidence Mueller may have that Trump’s legal team doesn’t know about, the president could soon find himself in a situation he isn’t able to tweet his way out of by blaming Hillary Clinton.