President Joe Biden’s presidential campaign launched its account on former President Donald Trump’s Truth Social platform on Monday. The reason? They thought it would be funny, according to an X post.
BidenHQ’s first Truth says “Converts welcome!”
Biden’s account currently just follows one other person, Donald Trump. Biden’s campaign seems to be posting as consistently as they have been on X, gaining 15,000 followers in the last day.
The Biden Campaign described the move to join Truth Social as “going into the lion’s den to point out Republicans’ hypocrisy and have a little fun at their own expense,” a campaign official told Fox News on Monday.
Monday also saw a federal judge impose a gag order on Trump. The former president is in court for his attempts to overturn the 2020 election results.
The latest 2024 Republican Primary polls from Morning Consult show Trump to maintain a massive lead over other candidates, with Ron Desantis, Nikki Haley and Vivek Ramaswamy all more than 40 points behind. FiveThirtyEight’s Presidential general election polls show that Biden and Trump are within just a few points of each other.
Biden’s launch onto Truth Social is likely to point fun at the Truth “sayers” on the platform, but the campaign also could be capitalizing on reaching Truth Social’s 2 million daily active users. This group, though likely being averse to Joe Biden, is a demographic liberals have a hard time reaching otherwise.
President Biden’s Truth Social campaign features the “Dark Brandon” meme as his profile picture, just like his X account. The meme stems from the phrase “Let’s go, Brandon!” – a misheard chant at a NASCAR rally that the Biden campaign has co-opted. “Dark Brandon” originates from “Dark MAGA,” a series of memes created around Trump with laser eyes, where MAGA supporters called on Trump to run in 2024 and take revenge on his political enemies.
That’s why our 46th sitting president is represented by a black and white photo with laser eyes on his social media accounts. Whether it’s effective at resonating with online communities or showcasing Biden’s disconnection with them, is up for discussion. Axios reports the meme and Biden’s online presence has driven up campaign merch sales with Dark Brandon merch making up 54% of the store’s total revenue.