Republicans are too busy telling jokes to care about Americans losing jobs

Republicans are too busy telling jokes to care about Americans losing jobs | Opinion

Posted by author March 2, 2025 Jobs

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Imagine being laid off by a tactless billionaire as President Trump tells jokes.

I didn’t expect the threat to American democracy to be so terminally online by way of jokes and giggles. I must have forgotten President Donald Trump wants to be a living meme motivated entirely by the false bravado that comes with being a bully.

But here we are.

On Feb. 18, the official White House X account posted a video with the caption “ASMR: Illegal Alien Deportation Flight 🔊.” In deafening clarity, you can hear the whir of the planes in the background and the clink of metal as officers lay out chains and handcuffs. You can witness a migrant’s shackled feet climbing up the stairs to the plane.

A few days prior, the account had posted a Valentine’s Day poem on a graphic that featured the floating heads of Trump and border czar Tom Homan, surrounded by little pink hearts: “Roses are red, violets are blue, come here illegally, and we’ll deport you.”

The Republicans are laughing while they expel people from the United States. They are chuckling into their phones when they read about how a department named for a meme, controlled by a man who bought Twitter so people would laugh at his jokes, is haphazardly dismantling the federal government.

People’s lives are being ruined for the lie that the government is being fixed and Republicans are gleeful.

Republicans just being ugly for the clout

I know I shouldn’t be surprised by anything at this point, even the memes. After all, Trump was elected in part because of the image he’s built of himself and the image that MAGA bows to.

However, the things that are happening are very serious and have a direct impact on people’s lives. The process Republicans are wielding with reckless abandonment is only making that impact sting more.

I previously critiqued President Joe Biden for trying to become a social media influencer during the 2024 election. I didn’t want my president to be funny then, and I don’t like it now. The defiling of the American government is not something any of us should take lightly.

At least Democrats were trying to be funny as a means of helping people. Their attempts to make us laugh through Biden were dorky, but they weren’t mean or designed to actively hurt people.

Regardless of what MAGA thinks, the inclusion of some people isn’t the persecution of others. To Republicans, the joke is at the expense of everyone who does not believe in their vision of the United States. And these are jokes tied to governmental action and legislation specifically meant to target Americans.

Take, for example, Trump’s latest attempt at a joke: a video of Gaza transformed from a decimated war zone to a gaudy artificial intelligence version of paradise. The video, which alludes to Trump’s recent declaration that he wants to buy the Gaza Strip, features bearded belly dancers, gold Trump memorabilia and Trump sunbathing alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The man is literally joking about an area where nearly 50,000 people have died. And he posted this horrible video as the first phase of a ceasefire ended Saturday. I’m sure this will help keep things calm.

There’s the SpongeBob SquarePants meme Trump posted as a response to the email demanding to know what federal employees had accomplished in the past week, sending people into a panic. There’s Elon Musk laughing about being accused of making a Nazi salute, his chainsaw and even the fact that the Department of Government Efficiency accidentally canceled a project focused on preventing Ebola. Nothing is off limits. The White House can’t get enough of mocking Americans losing their jobs.

It’s ugly, and it’s why Trump’s approval ratings are sliding. No one’s life is being improved by the suffering of others.

Prepare for a meme about Medicaid cuts. Maybe another AI video?

It’s kind of pathetic to watch administration officials cling so strongly to the idea that they’re funny, or worse, it’s sad to watch the White House cling to hate. They want to make supporters laugh as a distraction from the fact that nothing has gotten better. Everything is still expensive. It’s still difficult to buy a home and pay off student loans. No one is benefitting from the tragedy playing out before us.

Ask yourself this if you find Trump’s memes funny. What has the administration or the Republican Congress done to help your life?

All I see is the loss of jobs by the thousands and proposed Medicaid cuts. This means we’re about to see an Instagram post dunking on Medicaid users.

It’s clear that a huge portion of this battle will be fought on the digital front, something the left needs to take into account. The solution, at least in the last election cycle, was to fight memes with memes.

The Democratic Party is not funny, and that’s OK. The Republicans aren’t either, even though they think otherwise. Politics shouldn’t be funny.

We are past the point of humor. Democrats need to use social media to grow their base and get everyday Americans riled up about the major changes happening in our government.

Leave the comedy to the professionals and dig deep into issues that matter. Show us how Project 2025 is coming to fruition. Hold Instagram Live sessions to answer questions. Don’t just laugh to keep from crying.

I do not want my president to be a meme, but a meme is what we have. We must resist the urge to laugh along.

Follow USA TODAY columnist Sara Pequeño on X, formerly Twitter: @sara__pequeno