10 Memes That Defined The 2024 U.S. Presidential Election

The 2024 U.S. Presidential Election is finally over, ushering former President Donald Trump back into office for another four years.

No matter what your opinion is on the results, we can all agree that the road to this outcome was paved with some bizarre stories, insane events and truly outlandish memes.

For your entertainment (or coping) needs, in no particular order, here's a rundown of some of the biggest memes surrounding the recent election.

Fell Out of a Coconut Tree / Coconut-Pilled

Democratic nominee and Vice President Kamala Harris may not have won the presidency, but she made a huge impact on meme culture during her run in recent months. In particular, she gave us a lot of coconut-centric memes to play with thanks to her iconic catchphrase, "You think you just fell out of a coconut tree?"

The phrase actually comes from a May 2023 Harris speech that was initially circulated among critics of the VP before resurfacing in 2024 and being adopted by Harris supporters following the announcement that she'd run for president in Joe Biden's place after he dropped from the election. The phrase inspired a lot of auxiliary memes about being coconut-pilled as a way of showing both genuine and ironic support for the candidate.

The coconut memes were prominent for Harris when she first started running for president and helped spread her message online, as well as becoming a way for her supporters to identify themselves.

What Can Be, Unburdened By What Has Been

Speaking of Harris' iconic catchphrases, "fell out of a coconut tree" was rivaled only by her memorable, repeated use of the phrase, "What can be, unburdened by what has been," something that she's been saying since as early as 2020.

Similar to the coconut tree memes, the phrase was largely used by Republicans to make fun of Harris early on, framing it as a cryptic way of speaking, before it was adopted by her supporters when she announced her presidential run. Others criticized Harris for simply using the statement so much, with a four-minute-long compilation of her using the catchphrase even going viral online.

While "what can be, unburdened by what has been" might have good meaning and intention behind it, some people simply found it confusing and funny how much Harris relied on it, leading to a lot of memes teasing her about it.

Here are four straight minutes of Kamala Harris being "unburdened" pic.twitter.com/S4X5mfGKRm

— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) December 17, 2023

Kamala Is Brat

Brat summer was one of the biggest memes of the year thanks to the runaway success of Charli XCX's album Brat. That release happened to coincide with Harris' presidential run.

Thanks to the power of Charli XCX stans and meme magic, Brat summer became interwoven with the Harris campaign, leading to a huge wave of "Kamala is Brat" memes in the summer of 2024.

The trend was further fueled when pop star Charli XCX herself tweeted "kamala IS brat" in late July, with the @kamalahq Twitter / X account then embracing it shortly after by adding a brat-inspired banner image to its page.

During its peak, edits setting footage of Harris to Brat songs were going viral across social media. The meme was very Gen Z, and while boomers may have struggled to comprehend it, it seemed to many it showed a lot of hope that the younger generation was ready to support her.

Donald Trump's Raised Fist Photo

It's hard to deny that the first attempted assassination of Donald Trump and the now-iconic raised fist photo that it resulted in will go down as perhaps the most memorable moment of the 2024 U.S. election cycle.

Taken only moments after Trump's ear was shot by a gunman during a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, many felt the photograph was almost too perfect to believe. Considering this, there were a lot of conspiracy theories floating around about the whole thing supposedly being faked, but none of which were ever substantiated.

The photo became the subject of days worth of discourse and almost immediately inspired memes, including a lot of redraws depicting characters from a wide variety of media franchises in place of the President and his bodyguards. Prepare to see this photo in every future U.S. history book for a long time to come.

Trump Working at McDonald's

Just about everything Donald Trump does in regards to politics gets turned into a meme, but there was something special about his short stint working at McDonald's that spawned countless jokes.

The event was essentially just a photo-op used to make Trump look more relatable to the average working-class Joe, with the McDonald's reportedly being closed while Trump was working at it. But that doesn't make the photos that came out of the event any less memorable or memeable, such as a Norman Rockwell-esque photo of Trump waving from the drive-thru window.

Some of the pictures were even taken by Doug Mills, the photographer behind the raised fist photo months prior. Say what you will, but the man seems to know how to capture Trump in a flattering light.

Trump Supporters Wearing Diapers

One of the strangest things to happen during the 2024 election cycle was that brief period of time when Trump supporters wore diapers to show support for their candidate.

The whole thing stemmed from rumors that Donald Trump has been wearing diapers since the '90s. These rumors started spreading in 2020, which is also when the first supporter was photographed wearing a diaper to protest COVID-19 restrictions.

The rumors came back into the limelight during Trump's 2024 run and supporters started wearing diapers to protests to embrace the rumors and defend their man. This behavior struck a lot of people as odd, resulting in lots of memes and secondhand embarrassment for the diaper wearers.

Republicans Are Weird

It's not abnormal to hear many Democrats refer to Republicans as "scary" or "dangerous," but 2024 ushered in the era of taking a small step back and calling Republicans "weird" instead.

The trend started in July 2024, when Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, who would have been Harris' Vice President, said during an appearance on MSNBC that certain Republican policies and Trump's repeated talk about Hannibal Lecter were "weird."

This opened the floodgates as Democrats began describing Republicans and their talking points as weird at every opportunity they could.

Of course, Republican voters tried to retaliate by flipping the meme on Democratic voters, but ultimately, this meme will likely be remembered by many as a score for the Democrats (though perhaps not ultimately successful).

Joe Biden's Blank Stare / I Really Don't Know What He Said

The June 27th, 2024, debate between President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump is one that most Democrats probably never want to think about again.

Of course, that made it the perfect event for Republicans to pick apart, bringing us two big memes with Joe Biden's Blank Stare and Trump's disparaging comment, "I really don't know what he said at the end of that sentence and I don't think he knows that either."

The debate was a big deciding factor in getting Biden to drop out of the election due to his poor performance and the eruption of questions regarding his cognitive abilities. The blank, almost scared-looking stare he made at one point in the debate also inspired a lot of memes about being confused, while Trump claiming he had no idea what Biden said at the end of a comment about the border crisis was seen as a massive burn by the candidate for many.

J.D. Vance Couch Cushion Story Hoax

No list of 2024 election memes would be complete without mentioning soon-to-be Vice President J.D. Vance and the things he supposedly did to a couch cushion, which later got debunked.

In July 2024, a random X user claimed that Vance told a story about getting it on with a couch cushion in his book Hillbilly Elegy. Nobody seemed to care whether or not the claim was true (it was not), they just kind of ran with it, turning it into a massive meme that's sure to stick with Vance for years to come.

They're Eating the Dogs / AI Duck and Cat Images

In August 2024, unproven rumors about Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio purportedly eating pets and ducks spread widely across social media platforms and news outlets.

These rumors became a huge political talking point shortly after, used by Republicans to criticize immigration and inflame voters about the hot-button issue. Republican voters took it upon themselves to use AI to generate images of Trump saving cats and ducks, looking to portray him as the sort of hero that Springfield, Ohio needs.

On September 10th, the rumors went nuclear when Trump repeated them during a debate against Harris, saying, "They're eating the dogs." This only inspired more memes that directly use the audio clip to joke about the outlandish statement.

Honorable Mentions

RFK Jr.'s Brain Worms, Bear Story, Whale Story and Generally Odd Behavior

In August 2024, RFK Jr. (or Robert F. Kennedy Jr.) decided to suspend his run for president as an independent. But during the time he, ran, he fed the American people with a lot of fascinating and truly out-there stories about everything from having brain worms to dumping a bear in Central Park to strapping a dead whale's head to his family car.

Additionally, the "RFK Jr. Confessing" format in August, spawned from the video he posted in which he confessed to the dead bear story, led to a slew of memes about him confessing to all sorts of notorious incidents.

For a while there, it was like an endless parade of skeletons were marching out of RFK Jr.'s closet. When one story started to die down, another one reared its ugly head, like the disturbing "dog photo" rumor. If he'd kept running for the remaining three months of the election, who knows what else we might have learned about the man? That being said, who knows what we'll find out once he enters the spotlight again as he joins the Trump administration.

Kamala's Hyena Laugh / Fursona

Since 2019, Republican voters have been making fun of Kamala Harris' laugh by comparing it to that of a hyena.

So, it makes sense that during her presidential run, her detractors decided to bring the claims to new heights. They began sharing memes not only comparing her laugh to a hyena's but also making fun of how frequently she laughs at seemingly unnecessary times.

In retaliation, Harris' furry supporters took it upon themselves to make Harris a hyena fursona. This fursona became popularized on social media sites like Bluesky and worked as a strong show of support from a niche community.

Elon Musk's Jump

This election cycle brought us a lot of cringe moments, especially from Elon Musk according to many. But perhaps none were quite as cringeworthy as Musk's attempt to jump at an October Trump rally that quickly spread online last month.

A photo of the painfully awkward, childlike jump, made perfect by Trump's side-eye glare, became a massive meme online. Numerous people simply couldn't believe how ridiculous Musk looked while airborne, his arms awkwardly extended to the sky, his gut exposed to everyone without a care in the world.

Hundreds of photoshops later, this is sure to go down as one of the most memorable Musk photos of all time.