JDPON Don refers to a series of image edits portraying Donald Trump as a far-left Maoist Third-Worldist. Though the first instance of this meme was posted in early 2022, it only became widespread following a series of erratic policy decisions at the beginning of Trump's second term.

Background

The Joint Dictatorship of the Proletariat of Oppressed Nations (JDPON) is a concept in Maoism-Third Worldism and the alter-globalization movement, describing a hypothetical post-revolutionary order in which the working classes of the exploited, underdeveloped nations of the world forcibly seize control of the global economy.

Similar to Posadism and Anarcho-Primitivism, Maoism-Third Worldism was already a common subject of memes within left-wing circles before its association with Trump. Examples of this include "Maoist Standard English" ^[4] and various memes featuring Chinese emperors launching fireballs at the first world.

Origin

The first mention of the phrase "JDPON Don" on Twitter is a tweet by @ficshun on February 28th, 2022, discussing the possibility of Trump starting a nuclear war ^[1]. Later that year, @ricky_p_jones posted the first image edit related to the phrase, portraying Trump as Joseph Stalin ^[2]. The first clearly recognizable version of the meme, featuring Trump wearing a red bandana with Maoist iconography, was posted by @neomozarab on March 13th, 2023 ^[3].