Donald Trump's Grocery ID Gaffe

Overview

Donald Trump's Grocery ID Gaffe refers to the reaction to a speech made by United States President Donald Trump, during which the president erroneously claimed that in order to purchase groceries, customers must have identification.

Background

On July 31st, 2018, at a rally in Tampa, Florida, President Trump delivered remarks in support of voter identification laws. During his speech, he compared voter ID laws to buying groceries, which he claimed people need identification to purchase. He said:

We believe that only American citizens should vote in American elections. Which is why the time has come for voter ID, like everything else. Voter ID. You know, if you want to go out and you want to buy groceries you need a picture on a card, you need ID. You go out and you want to buy anything, you need I.D. And you need your picture. In this country, the only time you don’t need it, in many cases, is when you want to vote for a president, when you want to vote for a senator, when you want to vote for a governor or a congressman. It’s crazy.

President Trump, telling his supporters why he wanted Americans to be required to show identification before casting their votes, claimed that they needed to have IDs "to buy groceries." He did not elaborate. https://t.co/iYSYzA2XxM pic.twitter.com/H4DGjZVYxy

— CNN (@CNN) August 1, 2018

Development

Online Reaction

Reactions to Trump's comments were split between people discussing their issues with voter ID laws and people mocking Trump for his assertion that people need identification to purchase groceries. Twitter ^[1] user @stuartpstevens tweeted, "We can’t get half of eligible American citizens to vote. Illegal voting is a felony and the idea that lots of people would be so hot to vote they’d commit a felony is one of the most illogical conspiracies imaginable." Within 24 hours, the post (shown below, left) received more than 500 retweets and 1,700 likes.

Twitter^[2] user @JasonKander tweeted, "The president says you need a photo ID to buy groceries. 1. He’s lying. 2. I didn’t go to Afghanistan for his right to buy groceries. 3. This dude has never in his life bought his own groceries." The post (shown below, center) received more than 9,400 retweets and 48,000 likes in 24 hours.

People continued to share jokes about the gaffe by using the hashtag "#groceryID. Twitter^[3] @cherryswirlgirl tweeted a GIF of the
character Soup Nazi from the television series Seinfeld and the caption "No ID? Then no soup for you! #groceryid." The post (shown below, right) received more than 15 retweet sand 90 likes in 24 hours.

Twitter user @DevonInSpace tweeted a GIF from the telelvision series Arrested Development of the character Lucille Bluth saying "I mean it's one banana, Michael, What could it cost? 10 dollars?" They captioned the tweet, "When Trump said you need ID to buy groceries. #TrumpTampa. The post (shown below) received more than 1,000 retweets and 3,000 likes in 24 hours.

When Trump said you need ID to buy groceries. #TrumpTampa pic.twitter.com/q6nHw8Uf0i

— Devon Schwab (@DevonInSpace) August 1, 2018

That evening, Twitter^[4] published a Moments page about the reaction to the speech.

Media Coverage

Several media outlets covered the gaffe, including Heavy,^[5] Business Insider,^[6] TIME,^[7] The Takeout,^[8] The Daily Dot ^[9] and more.

Search Interest

External References