About

Panican is a slang term coined by U.S. President Donald Trump, meaning someone "weak" and "stupid" who panics in challenging yet potentially beneficial situations, specifically used in reference to Trump's reciprocal tariffs. A portmanteau of "panic" and "American" or "panic" and "Republican," Trump wrote in the post coining the term that "panican" is "a new party based on weak and stupid people." The term was coined by President Trump via a Truth Social post on April 7th, 2025, inspiring memes, discourse and reactions online, with many making fun of the term and claiming it's one of the worst Trump has ever come up with.

Origin

On the morning of April 7th, 2025, U.S. President Donald Trump made a post to his platform Truth Social^[1] regarding the backlash to his reciprocal tariffs.

In the post, he coins the term "panican," writing, "The United States has a chance to do something that should have been done DECADES AGO. Don’t be Weak! Don’t be Stupid! Don’t be a PANICAN (A new party based on Weak and Stupid people!). Be Strong, Courageous, and Patient, and GREATNESS will be the result!" The post gained over 43,000 likes and 9,300 retruths in under a day.

Prior to this, versions of the word "panican" or "panickin" have been used online, often as a nickname for "Anakin Skywalker," although these are largely unrelated to Trump's use of the term.^[8]

Spread

The term "Panican" went viral the day it was posted, inspiring discourse, criticism and memes as it spread online.

For instance, on April 7th, 2025, X^[2] user @MikeNellis reposted the Truth post, writing, "He’s panicking…," garnering over 6,800 likes in around four hours. The post was reposted to the subreddit /r/WallStreetbetsELITE^[3] around the same time, garnering over 650 upvotes in a few hours.

Within the same hour, X^[4] user @Whatapityonyou reposted the "panican" post, writing, "He knows he’s fucked--you can tell because the best insult he could come up with is 'panican' (??)" garnering over 360 likes within three hours.

Also on April 7th, 2025, X^[5] user @RepJackKimble posted, "Oh phew. When I heard Trump created a new word PANICAN, I thought that meant we were invading Panama and Canada today," garnering over 1,100 likes in about two hours.

That same day, X^[6] user @LibertyValkyrie posted a meme offering their definition of "panican," garnering over 420 likes in about two hours. Around the same time, Trump posted an exact copy of the "panican" post to X,^[7] garnering over 125,000 likes in the same timeframe.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References