Internet Culture

Donald Trump autographs a kid’s hat—then tosses it away

Some can’t tell if Trump was having fun here.

Photo of Jay Hathaway

Jay Hathaway

donald trump signs a hat

Donald Trump may not be a conventional president, but he kept up the tradition of the White House Easter Egg Roll, inviting kids to the South Lawn to hunt eggs. Trump described the kids as “highly, highly competitive” and predicted they’d have successful futures. At least one kid was in for a bad day, though, after the president signed his “Make America Great Again” hat and then threw it into the crowd.

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Here’s the video, via Politico, that has the internet calling the president “a fucking dickhead”:

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“No!” the kid and some others around him shout as the hat goes flying into the crowd. Trump then repeats the joke with another hat. Some people think it was cruel of him; others find it hilarious.

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https://twitter.com/jtylerconway/status/854005027064688640

And some are saying Trump didn’t throw the hat away at all, he threw it back to the teen who handed it to him. It’s hard to tell, even from this angle, but take a look:

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https://twitter.com/MicahGrimes/status/854009984606228480

And then there’s the second hat, which also gets tossed into the crowd with a “here you go, kids.” It’s even harder to see where that one ended up.

Perhaps the most controversial part of the video, though, is when Trump tries to return the Sharpie he borrowed to sign the caps, and he asks “Whose hat?” Some people on Twitter are convinced he meant “Whose pen?” but had an awkward memory lapse. Others think he said, “Who’s that?”—a rushed, but acceptable way of asking “Whose pen is that?”

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This is all trivial to discuss when the president is dropping 11-ton bombs on Afghanistan, but his fans love it and his critics think it shows he’s too incompetent to handle a basic task like signing autographs.

 
The Daily Dot