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What Does 'WAGTFKY' Mean? Memes Featuring Republicans Alongside Text That Reads 'We Are Going To Kill You' Explained
If a picture is worth a thousand words, then it seems like every photo of Vice President J.D. Vance is worth exactly seven: "We Are Going To Fucking Kill You."
What started as one-off jokes about his ominous vibe have since become a prevalent meme in his fanbase, slapped onto images of Vance, President Donald Trump and other right-wing figures whose official government portraits all look like they just delivered a chilling ultimatum.
Born from a joke about J.D. Vance’s increasingly doomsday-esque fundraising emails, a short form of the phrase, "WAGTFKY," has since become the unofficial caption for seemingly every photo of him looking vaguely menacing (which is many of them).
Here's a look at where the acronym and catchphrase originated, as well as how it's gaining traction in the Republican support base.
When Did The Phrase 'We Are Going To Fucking Kill You' Come To Be Associated With J.D. Vance?
Back on August 27th, 2024, X / Twitter user and Trump supporter @CityBureaucrat posted a tweet about how he was receiving "increasingly threatening" fundraising emails from J.D. Vance. The user then posted a photoshopped version of the image, altering it from "This Could Be My Final Message" to "We Are Going To Fucking Kill You." The post gathered over 400 likes in five months as it kindled a trend months later.
On October 28th, 2024, X user @woke8yearold then reposted the image with the caption, "Yet another anti-Trump Vance meme that ends up looking extremely badass," gathering over 11,000 likes in three months. This marks the first viral use of the phrase in association with Vance.
Other Twitter users seemed to agree with the idea that every new photo of J.D. Vance seemed to imply that he was wishing death on the person looking at him, with X users @ManDaveJobGood and @The_WGD posted similar jokes in January 2025 about how Vance's photos are just "we are going to kill you" coded.
When Did The Acronym "WAGTFKY" Begin Gaining Traction?
It was soon after the aforementioned viral tweets that Vance's actual support base really began to adopt the acronym as a rallying call, as seen in a January 20th, 2025, tweet by X user @kikisknees that read, "WAGTFKY…and we have 4 years to make it perfect." The tweet was accompanied by a photo of Barron Trump with glowing laser eyes.
Also on January 20th, X user @sadreturns posted an image showing J.D. and his wife Usha Vance in a car dressed in black tie attire alongside the words "We Are Going To Fucking Kill You."
Two days later, X user @shortmagsmle posted a tweet that read, "The government officially adopting the name 'Mount McKinley' should be interpreted as a warning that WAGTFKY. Hope that helps! 👋." The post racked up over 6,000 likes in a week and more have continued to pop up since.
For the full history of WAGTFKY, be sure to check out Know Your Meme's encyclopedia entry for more information.
