...
By Shane Croucher
Senior Editor
0
Share
Newsweek is a Trust Project member
See more of our trusted coverage when you search.Prefer Newsweek on Googleto see more of our trusted coverage when you search.
You may or may not be familiar with the internet term “quirk chungus.” For those who are not, it is a nickname originating from a webcomic that describes a particular type of annoying millennial, one stuck in performative quirkiness and cultural irrelevance.
They repeat ad nauseam yesteryear’s memes, now cringeworthy, and simply cannot move on. In many ways, they have become the kind of middle-aged adult reliving their 1970s childhoods that millennials themselves mocked as young adults.
Though a boomer, President Donald Trump is becoming a quirk chungus in the entropic phase of his late-stage political career. Unable to move on, Trump keeps reverting to gimmicky type. It was wearing thin before the midterms. It’s threadbare now.
Read More on Analysis
Four days after the election that handed Democrats control of Congress, and a day after replacing his chief of staff, Trump announced on Truth Social that he had offered out the vacant press secretary job.
If you were hoping for a more serious selection than Katie Zacharia, as Trump seeks to rescue his legacy in the final two years of his presidential term, disappointment awaited. The offer went to UFC boss Dana White. Fighters such as Khabib Nurmagomedov would be his assistants.
White played along, posting an apparently AI-generated image of himself at the briefing room lectern. But it was clear White’s heart wasn’t in this fight. The next day, Trump claimed he was “only kidding” about it. Funny once, perhaps. Not anymore.
The vote itself was bookended by Trump’s rote gags. In his last scheduled public remarks before Election Day, Trump mused about renaming the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool after himself, insisted he was joking, then added: “Please don’t report it.”
Yet more classic quirk chungus. A bit that once killed, run into the ground through repetition by a fading star. Renaming the Gulf of Mexico on his first day back in office was a provocation. By this year, it had become a tedious reflex.
Lake Ontario became “Lake America” by executive order in August. In September, he floated “New America” for New Mexico, then posted an AI video of himself relabeling the state’s welcome sign and breaking into his trademark YMCA dance (yawn).
He pitched the Strait of Hormuz, the wartime chokepoint behind America’s pump prices, as the “Trump Strait.” Then he ordered federal agencies to say “Super Intelligence” instead of artificial intelligence.
Related Story
As the Trump Era Ends, We’re Still Living in Leonard Cohen’s Future
The cameos and memes show the same diminishing returns. Nicki Minaj, who calls herself Trump’s “number one fan,” flew aboard Air Force One to a rally in Port Huron, Michigan, nine days before the vote.
She was even touted as a potential press secretary. But, like Trump, Minaj is passé. Her cultural moment has largely come and gone too. Their deepening relationship as the Trump era dies is proof enough of that.
Trump’s usual torrent of social memes before election day failed to change any minds. They barely generated headlines like they used to. The same slop repackaged, now with the help of AI. Sorry, SI.
Over Labor Day weekend, one White House meme showed Trump conjuring factories with Green Lantern’s ring. “The memes will continue,” a White House aide posted, promising the winning would too.
Only half of that came true. In fact, “the memes will continue” has been a regular refrain from White House aides and their supporters on social media. But when you’ve reached quirk chungus status, it’s time to have some self-respect and stop.
In fairness, the ploy has served Trump brilliantly over the years. Critics who dismissed him as a clown, in 2016 and again in 2024, missed the first law of internet politics: attention is power. And Trump was a master attention-seeker.
The man who memes himself first is tricky to caricature in a way that enables satirists to land a clean punch. Even former President Joe Biden’s White House borrowed the trick with “Dark Brandon,” though it didn’t end well for him either.
Moreover, domination of social media through memes and hyperactive posting helped Trump and MAGA to control the national conversation for a long time. Fast-moving chaos, controversy, and ridicule overwhelmed opponents as MAGA’s agenda marched on.
Related Story
You Want Slavery Reparations? You’d Better Bring an Army
But a quirk chungus isn’t someone who never got the joke. It’s one who got it years ago and never noticed the world moving on without them. Trump has become the doggo-loving millennial who can’t stop lol-ing at his own cringeposts.
In 2016, Trump’s gimmicks were an insurgent’s exciting new weapon. In 2026, they are an incumbent’s security blanket, waved at voters worried about a war and prices that no rebrand could fix. You can only tell the same joke so many times before the crowd boos.
That’s the cruelest part of being a quirk chungus. You’re the last to learn the joke has died. Trump, born in the baby boom’s very first year, is learning it at 80. Voters broke the news to him last Tuesday, and he replied with a UFC bit. Time to get some new material.
View 0 Comments
Submit Correction
View Editorial & AI Guidelines