Don't Snack on Me

About

Don't Snack on Me refers to a parody version of the Gadsden flag (that reads, "Don't Tread on Me"), which shows a cute cat and references the Haitian Immigrants Eating Pets and Geese Rumor sprung from Springfield, Ohio and spread by former President Donald Trump, his Vice Presidential pick J.D. Vance and other right-wing pundits on social media in September 2024. The Don't Snack on Me meme and Don't Snack on Me flag spread on Twitter / X in mid-September 2024, predominantly following the U.S. Presidential Debate between Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris, during which Trump mentioned the illegal Haitians eating pets rumor. The Don't Snack on Me flag was also criticized by others who believed it spread racist misinformation about an unfounded rumor.

Origin

On September 9th, 2024, X^[1] user @Jules31415 tweeted a parody of the "Don't Tread on Me" flag (Gadsden flag), which showed a cute kitten with text reading, "Don't Snack on Me." The user captioned the image, "New flag just debuted 🥹," gaining over 16,000 likes in two days (shown below).

Spread

In the following days, the image spread online as it was reposted and altered with different imagery, particularly swapping in other animals like dogs. For instance, on September 10th, 2024, Facebook^[2] user Michael Berry shared a version with a black cat on it, receiving over 1,200 reactions in a day.

Additional versions of the flag continued to surface in mid-September 2024, like an AI-generated image shared by X^[3] user @ObamasGoonCave on September 10th, gaining over 400 likes in a day (shown below).

On September 9th, X^[4] user @bennyjohnson tweeted a variant of the flag with a Pug puppy on it, reading, "DONT EAT ME," gaining over 61,000 likes in two days (shown below).

Search Interest

Unavailable.

External References