About

Cute Winter Boots, also known as CWB, is a slang and code word for an anti-Donald Trump movement on TikTok combatting the U.S. President's immigration policies that include the mobilization of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to mass deport illegal immigrants in 2025. Amid the trend, anti-Republican TikTokers started to tell each other to put their "cute winter boots" on to combat "ice," signaling a resistance against ICE and deportations. Some also interpreted Cute Winter Boots as a code word for "guns." A protest date of January 29th, 2025, was widely spread by supporters of the movement and was called a "Cute Winter Boots Sale" by many. While numerous users supported the movement on social media, others from varying political backgrounds frowned upon it, either for being vapid, cringe or opposed to one's stance on immigration.

Origin

Cute Winter Boots videos originally surfaced on TikTok on January 23d, 2025, however, many of the earliest videos have since been deleted. For instance, sometime on or before January 23rd, TikToker^[2] @xxking._.dirtxx shared a video that was widely reposted on Twitter / X ^[1][3] on the 23rd in which he urged people to talk about resistance to President Trump with the keyword "cute winter boots" (repost shown below).

Libs are now using the term "Cute Winter Boots" to organize Luigi-style violence on TikTok to trick the algo pic.twitter.com/3EbOlcQarn

— Jack Poso 🇺🇸 (@JackPosobiec) January 23, 2025

Another TikToker^[4] named @tomatotamato1234 shared a since-deleted video on or before January 23d, with a text caption, showing off her daughter's "cute winter boots" with capitalized letters reading "REVOLT" when put together (screenshot shown below).

Some Cute Winter Boots videos from January 23rd, 2025, remained on the app in the following days, like one shared by TikToker^[5] @theactualqwertykeyboard that showed a "Kill the Cistem" patch (an intentional misspelling using the term "CIS") being added to a jean jacket, gaining over 60,700 likes in four days (shown below).

It's currently unknown which of the aforementioned TikTokers started the trend or if they were inspired by someone else around the same timeframe.

Spread

In the following days, others on TikTok added to the Cute Winter Boots trend. For instance, on January 24th, 2025, TikToker^[6] @orangejulius314 posted a video using Cute Winter Boots in the caption, showing a message about ICE on a tablet, gaining over 113,600 likes in three days (shown below).

Also on January 24th, TikToker^[7] @cruciatus30 posted a video of the catchphrase "Deny, Defend, Depose" written on American dollars with the caption reading, "Love these winter boots so much," gaining over 1.6 million likes in three days (shown below).

The Cute Winter Boots trend received criticism from right-wing pundits on social media. For instance, on January 23rd, 2025, X^[1] user and right-wing activist Jack Posobiec (@JackPosobiec) reposted TikToker @xxking._.dirtxx's since-deleted video, captioning it, "Libs are now using the term 'Cute Winter Boots' to organize Luigi-style violence on TikTok to trick the algo," receiving over 3,200 likes in four days (shown below).

Libs are now using the term "Cute Winter Boots" to organize Luigi-style violence on TikTok to trick the algo pic.twitter.com/3EbOlcQarn

— Jack Poso 🇺🇸 (@JackPosobiec) January 23, 2025

Others outside of right-wing circles also criticized the movement. For instance, on January 26th, TikToker^[8] @president.erik shared a video criticizing the Cute Winter Boots trend for being "corny" and further said, "Some of y'all think just because you post on social media, you make a difference." The video received over 45,400 likes in a day (shown below).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References