President-elect Trump isn’t even in the White House yet and he’s taking credit for the recent economic boom. The U.S. Consumer Confidence Index surged nearly four points in December and is at its highest level in 15 years. Naturally, Donald Trump took to Twitter on Tuesday to pat himself on the back, taking credit for President Obama’s achievements. Trump won’t even be inaugurated for another month.
If Trump’s narcissistic tweet wasn’t enough, he also stole his predecessor’s long-running Internet meme: “Thanks Obama.” Of course, in Trump’s case, he ended his tweet: “Thanks Donald.” An Internet meme is far different than a tweet, and the catchphrase that worked for Obama as a meme fails as a tweet for Trump. Why?
By signing off with “Thanks Donald,” President-elect Trump is referring to himself in the third person. While Twitter isn’t the social media vehicle to dazzle the world with one’s English language skills, referring to oneself in the third person is probably best left to, well, third graders. It’s also the sort of self-congratulatory phrasing that megalomaniacal dictators indulge in.
A few days prior to thanking himself for the surging economy, President-elect Trump fired up his Twitter account and took credit for Christmas. He praised himself for encouraging people to shop, stating that holiday spending for 2016 was over a trillion dollars. But here’s the bottom line. The only thing Trump can really take credit for is thieving his predecessor’s meme, creating a fake news story, and poor English language skills.