Donald Trump celebrated his 74th birthday on Sunday the 14th of June – but not everyone was in the mood to party with the POTUS. In fact, Trump’s birthday got totally hijacked by a bunch of very clever Twitter users keen to divert the attention elsewhere. Hear all about it below:
On Sunday, the hashtag ‘All Birthdays Matter’ began trending as a cheeky nod to the offensive ‘All Lives Matter’ movement and as a genius way of honouring former POTUS Barack Obama.
In another expert twist of the knife, phrases like ‘Obama Day June 14th’, ‘Obama Appreciation Day’, ‘Obama Day USA’ and ‘Happy Birthday Obama’ started picking up steam on Twitter.
Even celebrities jumped on the All Birthdays Matter bandwagon, including Billy Baldwin, Ken Jeong and George Takei, who tweeted, “I’d say happy birthday to Donald on his special day, but after all, #AllBirthdaysMatter.”
He later added, “Oh, how you are missed, Mr. President. What do you miss most about Barack Obama, friends? #ObamaDayJune14,” along with a video of the former president.
Other Twitter users posted the All Birthdays Matter hashtag to continue shining a light on police brutality and those who have died as a result, including George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Trayvon Martin, Tamir Rice and so many more.
It’s not the first time Twitter ‘stans’ have hijacked a tag to raise awareness and reclaim power over offensive trends. When the White Lives Matter hashtag began trending earlier this month, k-pop fans quickly flooded Twitter with fancams of their favourite artists to draw attention to the Black Lives Matter movement.
Around the same time, Twitter user @alluregaga posted ‘EXPOSING LANA DEL REY; a thread.” The tweet quickly attracted attention and soon, del Rey’s name was trending on the social media platform. However, when fans clicked in to read the thread, it had nothing to do with the singer.
In a genius move, @alluregaga used the thread to promote campaigns raising money for Black Lives Matter including the Minnesota Freedom Fund, the National Bail Fund Network and more.
It just goes to show that despite the money and power held by social media execs, and the negative rhetoric that floods our feeds from the likes of Trump – people still have the power to change the conversation for the better.
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