The most viral and absurd moments of the 2024 US election cycle

From withdrawals to unfounded claims, deepfakes and feline prejudice, there’s no denying that the road to Election Day 2024 has been the most dramatic and bizarre in modern history. 

If Hollywood isn’t already greenlighting a big screen adaptation of this stranger-than-fiction moment in time, we’ll eat our hats.  

Rarely has an election cycle been this strange, divisive, hateful and soul-suckingly awful, to the extent recapping all the many ways it has grabbed headlines and eroded collective sanity is close to impossible.  

Nevertheless, here’s Euronews Culture’s attempt at collecting some of the moments that have defined this run up to the election – the ones that have made us wonder whether we will ever be able to go back to a simpler and happier time when electioneering was a normal process.

Biden gaffes

Prior to his wathdrawal from the race, a lot of viral moments during the election cycle were Joe Biden’s multiple falls and public gaffes.

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni had to redirect him back for a group photo after Biden was seen wandering off, and he was caught napping during a G7 meeting.

The biggest one though was the NATO summit in July, during which Biden got his names mixed up. Biden mistakenly referred to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy as “President Putin” while speaking to reporters about NATO’s support for Ukraine. Which leads us to…

Biden drops out

Joe Biden’s withdrawal from the race was something many were hoping for, as the President’s mental faculties had been questioned for a while. As the oldest candidate at 81 years old, the gaffes were accumulating. Following his disastrous performance against Trump during their painful-to-watch first debate – filled with claims that Medicare had been beaten and golf smack talk – Biden dropped out in July.

This was the first major dramatic twist that led the way to Kamala Harris replacing the 46th President on the ticket, and spelling disaster for the Trump team, who had to recalibrate their strategy of endlessly criticising Biden’s aptitude for a second term.

Mr. Literally Anybody Else

Earlier this year, and prior to Biden’s withdrawal, a Texas man legally changed his name to ‘Literally Anybody Else’ and announced he was running for US president.

It may sound silly, but the man formerly known as Dustin Ebey is a US army veteran and seventh-grade math teacher. He said he wanted to change his name because he was unsatisfied with this year’s presidential candidates: “Three hundred million people can do better. There really should be some outlet for people like me who are just so fed up with this constant power grab between the two parties that just has no benefit to the common person.”

Doesn’t sound too silly now, does it? The candidate’s website says: “Literally Anybody Else isn’t a person, it’s a rally cry. For too long have Americans been a victim of its political parties putting party loyalty over governance. Together let’s send the message to Washington and say, ‘You will represent or be replaced’.”

Assassination attempt & ear covers

There’s nothing funny about an assassination attempt on anyone. After Trump survived an attempted assassination on 13 July, many were claiming that it was all over and that the race to the White House was all but done. However, this was before Biden resigned.

The attempt on Trump’s life led to the Republican candidate showing up to the RNC with a large gauze on his ear that was reportedly grazed by a bullet. In rather ridiculous scenes that once again showed the MAGA crowd’s cultish devotion to their nearly fallen leader, attendees started wearing their very own bandages.

It looked silly. And the bandages came off quite quickly, as the wound did not grab that many headlines afterwards. Check out some of the images here.

Trump & Hannibal

Trump has said a lot of hateful and downright bizarre things during this election cycle – including recently commenting on the size of a golfer’s manhood. However, the unhinged way he has repeatedly mentioned one of cinema’s greatest villains, Hannibal Lecter, in his speeches is particularly strange.

Trump has referenced the fictional antagonist of The Silence of the Lambs as if he were a real person (“the late, great Hannibal Lecter”; “he’s a wonderful man”) and this was charitably seen as a shameful fearmongering tactic that equates real-life issues with fictional evil. We wrote a whole piece about it here.

However, it was also a worrying sign that Trump’s mental capacities and cultural knowhow were puddle deep, and that he needed reminding that Lecter was hardly wonderful, famously not dead, and that “insane asylum” was not the same as “political asylum”. His way of demonising migrants through a confused movie reference was further proof that Trump genuinely doesn’t know what he’s referencing half the time.

JC Vance & the couch

Ever since JD Vance was announced as Trump’s running mate, the label “weird” has been thrown his way quite a fair bit. His cringy Diet Mountain Dew / racism jokes; his inability to appear human when ordering doughnuts; his lack of credibility considering he was previously a fierce critic of Trump’s… The list goes on.

However, one rumour-turned-meme that has stuck has been that Vance had sex with a piece of furniture. Indeed, an X user posted a joke about Vance admitting to having intimate relations with a couch in his bestselling memoir, “Hillbilly Elegy”.

The claim that never appears in the book was given an unintentional assist from AP, who decided to run a fact-check with a column titled “No, JD Vance Did Not Have Sex With A Couch”. Despite AP retracting the article, the story went viral and memes went wild. Harris’ running mate Tim Walz even referenced it in his first speech as a VP candidate, telling Vance to “get off the couch.”

Childless cat ladies

JD Vance again, who earned his “weird” label once more when an old clip went viral of the would-be-Veep telling Fox News anchor Tucker Carlson the Democratic party was run by “childless cat ladies who are miserable at their own lives.”

The clip elicited the ire of… well, pretty much everyone, including Republican women who are childless by choice or because they have struggled to conceive. Memes started, only ramped up by Vance’s documented obsession with fertility rates and his fluctuating stances on abortion.

Vance’s inability to contain the situation led to the creation of Cat Ladies For Harris and an outcry of support from various celebs, including Taylor Swift who signed off her Harris endorsement statement as “Taylor Swift… Childless Cat Lady.”

Speaking of which…

AI generated Swifties

In August, Donald Trump shared AI-generated images that falsely suggested that he had Taylor Swift’s backing for the upcoming elections. The deepfakes backfired massively.

“I accept!” Trump wrote, before doing a lunatic 180 turn and very presidentially rage-posting “I HATE TAYLOR SWIFT” once the pop star had endorsed Harris.

Swift mentioned the use of AI and Trump’s misuse of the images in her endorsement message, saying it “really conjured up my fears around AI, and the dangers of spreading misinformation. It brought me to the conclusion that I need to be very transparent about my actual plans for this election as a voter. The simplest way to combat misinformation is with the truth.”

Kamala is Brat

The memeification of Kamala Harris has been widespread – none more so than when Charli XCX announced that “kamala IS brat”.

If you’re still confused, we broke the whole thing down here.

Gen Z went nuts, Harris’ campaign quickly set its X banner photo to the Shrek-green colour of the album cover, and anchors had to get au fait with what brat was in order to explain it on the news.

The emergence of viral moments made Harris into someone with a growing online fandom – the “KHive” – and marked her out as an alternative to Biden, who struggled to win over younger voters. It also positioned her as the candidate who represents America’s younger demographics and someone who can connect with Gen Z – something that Donald Trump also struggles with.

It remains to be seen whether the generational shift will ultimately work in Harris’ favour or whether it’s all gone from rizz to cringe.

Merch mania

Merchandise is everywhere, and whether its pro-Harris or MAGA, the prices are extortionate. However, the sheer amount of merch that Trump is peddling borders on full-blown tacky parody.

Granted, there’s nothing new here, as Trump has always been a capitalism poster boy and has never shied away from a marketing opportunity, no matter how crass or credibility-staining. From boardgames, steaks and even vodka, his self-branded products have always been around. However, the end stretch of the election cycle has seen the Trump team up the ante with an onslaught of Trump-hawked items.

Whether it’s bibles (read more about those here), silver coins (“The ONLY OFFICIAL coin designed by me”), luxury watches (from TheBestWatchesOnEarth LLC), cryptocurrency exchange (“We’re embracing the future with crypto and leaving the slow and outdated big banks behind”) and Never Surrender High-Tops, it’s all a bit embarrassing. And concerning, as by hawking self-branded items during a presidential race, Trump muddies the legal and ethical waters when it comes to fundraising.

There’s no precedent for this level of election monetization, with The New York Times saying that Trump’s branded sales are part of an “extraordinary effort to mix his personal finances with his bid to return to political power.”

Alexa bats for Kamala

A video went viral online as it showed Alexa naming Kamala Harris as the better presidential candidate over Trump.

When asked about voting for Trump, Alexa replied: “I cannot provide content that promotes a specific political party or a specific candidate.”

However, when asked about voting for Harris, Alexa gave a detailed list of reasons why someone should vote for the Democrat — including that she is a “strong candidate with a proven track record of accomplishment.”

Amazon insisted that its voice-enabled assistant didn’t have any political opinions and that Alexa’s responses were “an error that was quickly fixed.”

“They’re eating the dogs”

This is a big one. During his first debate against Harris, Trump peddled false claims about immigrants, leading him to be fact-checked live on air. It also led to a flurry of memes featuring animals and The Simpson’s dog, Santa’s Little Helper, as the former president began to ramble about immigrants killing and eating people’s pets.

“In Springfield, they’re eating the dogs, the people that came in, they’re eating the cats,” said Trump. “They’re eating the pets of the people that live there.” 

The unhinged claim, which had been debunked and ridiculed, originated with a viral video of a resident of Springfield, Ohio, claiming before the town’s council that immigrants had killed ducks from a local park for food. The unsubstantiated accusation spread on rightwing accounts and evolved into a viral meme of AI-generated Trump appearing to protect animals.

The comments made by Trump, which are dangerous for Haitians in the US and even hark back to hateful stereotypes regarding Asian immigrants, join the Republican candidate’s frequent comparing of immigrants to Hannibal Lecter. They reveal another fearmongering tactic on Trump’s part to establish an equivalence between foreigners and the taking (and consumption) of what people hold most valuable.

A future career as a DJ?

Last month, mere weeks before the election, Trump decided to host a listening party instead of answering political questions. The catastrophically strange performance in Pennsylvania, during which the presidential nominee seemed to forget that the election was on 5 November and not “5 January”, as he stated, included playing his playlist for 40 minutes.

Trump ‘danced’ along to music, in a clear attempt to avoid making more gaffes in public, and instead held a crowd hostage to his Spotify playlist, which featured songs by artists who have banned Trump from using their music. This included a medley of Guns N’ Roses ‘November Rain’, James Brown’s ‘It’s A Man’s World’, ‘YMCA’, ‘Memory’ from Cats, several versions of ‘Ave Maria’, and Sinéad O’Connor’s ‘Nothing Compares 2 U’. 

Varied, granted, but there’s a fine line between eclectic and disturbing.

Maybe he thought “swing state” meant they liked to bop to jazz?  

Elon Musk being a “dipshit”

Attention starved billionaire tech troll and X owner Elon Musk has been a looming presence during this election cycle.

He reversed the X ban on Trump, gradually turned what used to be Twitter into a MAGA echo chamber, and in August held an odd interview with the presidential candidate. It was marred by technical glitches, and Trump went viral as many suspected his dentures were falling out, as the former president sounded like he was doing an impression of Sylvester the Cat.

Then, in October, he appeared at a Pennsylvania rally for Trump, jumping up and down like a child dizzy on lemonade who was all excited about leaving his mother’s basement for the first time. Rambling about being “Dark MAGA”, his energy throughout was mocked online and his controversial black cap had some lettering that many online noticed resembled Nazi typography. (More on that in a bit.)

Musk went on to pledge that he would give $1 million per day to a swing state voter who signed a petition for his political action committee. Considering federal law prohibits anyone paying for others to vote, the offer led to many to brand this election interference. Not that this bothers Trump, who stated on Fox News that he is planning on making Musk “secretary of cost cutting” when he wins the election.

As for Tim Walz, he described Musk as “prancing and dancing around like a dipshit.”

Fascism accusations & Hitler references

General John Kelly, who served under Trump as his chief of staff, said in a New York Times interview that Trump fits the “general definition of a fascist” and confirmed the Republican candidate’s fascination with Adolf Hitler.

“He commented more than once that, ‘You know, Hitler did some good things, too.'”

In a separate interview with the Atlantic, Kelly described how Trump bemoaned that he did not have generals who were loyal in the way he believed military commanders had been to Hitler.

His statements propelled the issue of fascism to the forefront of the election cycle. Trump hit back at Kelly on his Truth Social platform by calling him a “degenerate” and a “low life”, while also inaccurately accusing Harris on X of calling him Adolf Hitler, when it was Kelly who made the direct reference.

In any normal year, the mere mention of Hitler would have tanked a candidate’s chances. However, normalcy is in short supply these days, and both Harris and Trump remain neck and neck in the polls.

McDonald’s gets dragged into it

When Donald Trump donned an apron at a McDonald’s in Pennsylvania, the aim was to appeal to working class voters. Fair enough. However, it was also to push his unsubstantiated claim that Kamala Harris never worked at the fast-food chain, as Harris has stated she worked at a franchise in California 40 years ago.

Harris has mentioned this on the campaign trail, as an example of her being more in tune with the concerns of working Americans than her billionaire rival.

Naturally, the moment saw Trump behaving a bit oddly, and led to more merchandise opportunities. A fundraising mail was sent with the header: “I HAVE A McGIFT FOR YOU!”. The gift? Well, for a donation of $100, you get a t-shirt emblazoned with Trump donning an apron and the slogan “MAGADonald’s”.

We’re not making this up.

As for McDonald’s, they issued a statement saying: “As we’ve seen, our brand has been a fixture of conversation this election cycle. While we’ve not sought this, it’s a testament to how much McDonald’s resonates with so many Americans. McDonald’s does not endorse candidates for elected office and that remains true in this race for the next President. We are not red or blue – we are golden.”

Tony Hinchcliffe & the Madison Square Garden rally ripple effect

Brace yourselves – this last one is still ongoing…

The recent Trump rally in New York’s Madison Square Garden saw a succession of warm up acts like Elon Musk, Rudi Giuliani, Tucker Carlson and Hulk Hogan struggling to rip his shirt.

However, the lowest point (which is saying plenty considering the aforementioned rollcall) came with self-proclaimed “right-wing comedian” Tony Hinchcliffe. His set was an avalanche of racist remarks and horrific ‘jokes’.

“I don’t know if you guys know this, but there’s literally a floating island of garbage in the middle of the ocean right now. I think it’s called Puerto Rico,” he said, later including lewd and racist comments about Latinos, Jewish and Black people.

The comments led to condemnation from Democrats and Puerto Rican celebrities, with Ricky Martin sharing a clip of Hinchcliffe’s set, captioned: “This is what they think of us.”

In something of a shock twist, the Trump campaign took the rare step of distancing itself from Hinchcliffe. “This joke does not reflect the views of President Trump or the campaign,” senior adviser Danielle Alvarez said in a statement.

However, the ‘joke’ went viral and reminded people that Trump used the same word – “garbage” – to describe refugees. He also infamously described Mexicans as “drug dealers, criminals and rapists”, recently labelled Haitians as pet eaters, and had previously referred to Haiti and African nations as “shithole countries” during his presidency.

As if that wasn’t enough, Hinchcliffe angered Taylor Swift fans after he called Travis Kelce the “next O.J. Simpson” at the same rally.

“I don’t know about you, but I think that Travis Kelce might be the next O.J. Simpson,” Hinchcliffe said at one point in his speech about Swift’s current boyfriend – who plays for the Kansas City Chiefs of the NFL.

For those of you who need a refresher, former NFL player OJ Simpson was charged in 1994 with murdering his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ron Goldman. The high-profile trial led to Simpson’s acquittal in 1995 but he was deemed liable for the deaths in a civil suit brought by the victims’ families three years later.

And in the latest twist stemming from the Madison Square Garden rally, Joe Biden has tried to clarify his comments after he appeared to call supporters of Donald Trump “garbage”.

“The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporters,” Biden was quoted as saying following the rally.

Biden wrote on X: “Earlier today I referred to the hateful rhetoric about Puerto Rico spewed by Trump’s supporter at his Madison Square Garden rally as garbage – which is the only word I can think of to describe it. His demonisation of Latinos is unconscionable. That’s all I meant to say. The comments at that rally don’t reflect who we are as a nation.”

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters at a briefing that Biden “does not view Trump supporters or anybody who supports Trump, as garbage”.

However, Trump supporters have started to make comparisons with a controversial remark by Hillary Clinton in 2016 during Trump’s first run for office, when she said that half of Trump’s supporters were from a “basket of deplorables”.

Banking on the situation for a photo op, Trump was photographed in an orange and yellow safety vest in a garbage truck, saying: “This is in honor of Kamala and Joe Biden.”

Exhausted yet?

So are we.

The 2024 US Presidential election takes place on Tuesday 5 November.