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#MemeOfTheWeek: The New Trump/Pence Logo That's Doing ... Something

A new Trump-Pence logo sent out by a Trump-RNC joint fundraising committee.
Courtesy Make America Great Again Committee
A new Trump-Pence logo sent out by a Trump-RNC joint fundraising committee.

Political logos are hard. Very hard. There's usually always something in them to be not just dissected, but mocked, memed, and ridiculed.

Hillary Clinton was on the receiving end of such treatment when she unveiled her logo (that H with the red arrow facing right, of all directions).

And now Donald Trump is enduring the same, if not worse. Friday, just after he officially announced Indiana Gov. Mike Pence as his running mate (on Twitter of course), his fundraising committee unveiled its new logo: a "T" and a "P" both inside an American flag, on top of the words: Trump. Pence. Make America Great Again! The logo debuted in a fundraising e-mail from the Make America Great Again Committee, according to Politico. That's the joint fundraising committee between the Trump campaign and the Republican National Committee.

Simple enough, right? NO.

As soon as it hit the web, something seemed off. This logo, that visual — it was strangely sexual.

That T was doing something to the P.

Within minutes, it was the laughing stock of the Internet, especially among those who dislike Trump of course.

It got its very own GIF, too (viewer discretion advised).

There were gay jokes.

And toilet paper jokes.

And the jokes about how this was all a metaphor for what Trump's relationship with his new running mate might be like.

Even senior statesmen like John Dingell got in on the fun.

In minutes, it seemed, one logo turned all of the Internet into 12-year-olds. Perhaps it is fitting. In an election where candidates on both sides of the aisle have been acting like adolescents — trading petty insults, getting into Twitter fights, discussing the size of their manhood, riffing on Pokemon — we should have expected at some point for all of us involved to totally take this whole thing back to middle school.

Of course, some people must actually like the logo (tell us in the comments or tweet us at @nprpolitics if you do!), though they must not be on Twitter today. And, it's quite rare that a political logo, on its own can win or lose an election. But, so many jokes, so quickly after this logo's debut, it can't be good.

At least "Trump Pence" has a nice ring to it. (It sounds like "trumpets.")

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Sam worked at Vermont Public Radio from October 1978 to September 2017 in various capacities – almost always involving audio engineering. He excels at sound engineering for live performances.
Sam Sanders
Sam Sanders is a correspondent and host of It's Been a Minute with Sam Sanders at NPR. In the show, Sanders engages with journalists, actors, musicians, and listeners to gain the kind of understanding about news and popular culture that can only be reached through conversation. The podcast releases two episodes each week: a "deep dive" interview on Tuesdays, as well as a Friday wrap of the week's news.

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