About

President Glen Powell or John Politics is a series of memes based on a photograph of actor Glen Powell, published by GQ in late 2025, where he appears in a suit and tie with slicked-back hair, meant to evoke images of a stereotypical American president or politician.

Memes using the image were popularized on TikTok and Instagram Reels in early August 2026. Some memes use the phrase "good hair doesn't matter," followed by a compilation of images that jokingly claim that Powell's hair, when slicked back, helps him mog other presidents.

As the meme spread in early August 2026, X / Twitter user @arthurklover_ posted the image under a text caption referring to Powell as "John Politics," which subsequently went viral and spawned the meme of the same name using the GQ photo.

Origin

On September 9th, 2025, GQ^[1] published an interview with actor Glen Powell that featured a photograph of him dressed in a U.S. presidential look.

In the photo, he holds his hand out, wears a suit with slicked-back hair and stands in front of an American flag. The photo is purportedly meant as a satire of a typical modern male fantasies, along with the other photos in the article, which feature Powell as a vaping cowboy, a bodybuilder with oversized muscles, a spelunker and more

The image became the subject of reactions shortly after it went online. For example, on September 9th, X^[2] user @Konijn370576 quoted a post sharing the image, writing, "He looks like a fake political candidate in GTA," garnering over 415,000 likes and 16,000 reposts in a year.

Spread

Memes using the image of Glen Powell as a president were further popularized in late July and early August 2026 on TikTok.

On July 30th, 2026, TikToker^[3] @pauletics0 posted a meme sharing the image under the caption, "How bro looks at you when you don't want to rate top 5 carckable cartoon characters as 8:00 in the morning," garnering over 1,600 views in five days.

On August 1st, TikToker^[4] @kalza.cc posted a video edit based on the image, featuring numerous edits of the photograph, garnering over 592,000 views in three days.

On August 3rd, 2026, TikToker^[5] @zyra._edit posted a meme featuring the caption, "Oil doesn't matter," over several images of Glen Powell, followed by images of Powell dressed as the president, where he is significantly oily-looking, garnering over 1.3 million views in a day.

John Politics Meme

On August 2nd, 2026, X^[6] user @arthurklover_ posted the photograph of Powell, writing, "I'm laughing so hard at this photo..,,… who is this and why is he so glossy,,,.. is he john politics..???" garnering over 251,000 likes and 14,000 reposts in two days.

On August 4th, Newsweek^[7] published an article about the "John Politics" post amid its virality online, further popularizing it.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References