- AFP
- November 4, 2026
From the ballot box to the meme box: Trump takes a beating
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- WEB DESK
- November 4, 2026
US President Donald Trump has suffered a major political setback after his Republican Party lost control of both chambers of Congress in the midterm elections, but social media users wasted little time turning the result into a meme fest, with the president emerging as the main target of online jokes and AI-generated videos.
From an Iranian diplomatic mission’s video showing Trump being dumped into a bin marked “Hazardous Waste” to clips depicting him struggling to escape the consequences of his own decisions, the internet was awash with memes mocking the Republican defeat.
The November 3 elections saw Democrats regain control of both the Senate and the House of Representatives, dealing a major blow to Trump’s administration. Although the president was not himself on the ballot, he had made the elections a test of his political standing, and his party’s losses gave critics plenty of material.
Iran, which has been engaged in a conflict with the United States and Israel since February, was among the most vocal participants in the online mockery.
Iran’s ‘Hazardous Waste’ meme goes viral
One of the most widely shared posts came from the official X account of the Iranian Embassy in India.
The embassy shared an AI-generated video showing several suited men carrying Trump and throwing him into a large rubbish bin labelled “Hazardous Waste”.
Captioned simply “The US midterm elections”, the video appeared to draw a parallel between the Republican Party’s electoral setback and the disposal of hazardous waste.
The post quickly attracted attention, with social media users sharing and commenting on the clip. Some welcomed the Democratic victory as a boost for democracy, while others used the opportunity to criticise Trump’s policies, particularly the war with Iran.
The embassy’s post was part of a wider wave of memes and satirical videos targeting the US president after the election results emerged
Iranians celebrate Trump’s setback
Several social media users also attempted to capture the reaction in Iran to the Republican defeat.
One widely shared video showed people dancing and celebrating, with a caption suggesting it represented the happiness of Iranians watching Trump lose the midterms.
Iranian officials, meanwhile, sought to portray the outcome as a rejection of the US president’s policies towards Tehran.
Iranian parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said the American public had sent a message against war and rising living costs.
“Conscience or the cost of living, Americans said NO TO WAR, and we endorse this message,” he wrote on X.
The conflict, which began with US and Israeli strikes on Iranian targets in February, has contributed to higher energy prices and economic pressure on American households.
The war has also become a recurring subject of online exchanges between Iranian officials and US political figures.
‘From boss to biggest loser’
Another meme making the rounds juxtaposed Trump with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, portraying the US president’s journey from declaring himself the “boss” to becoming the biggest loser.
The reference was to a moment at the G7 summit in France in June, when Trump arrived nearly an hour late for a meeting of world leaders.
As he approached his seat, Trump jokingly announced, “I’m the boss”, prompting laughter among those present.
Footage of the exchange, which took place on June 17 at the summit in Evian-les-Bains, had already attracted widespread attention. The clip resurfaced during the midterm meme fest, with users using it to contrast Trump’s earlier show of confidence with his party’s election setback.
Trump cuts the branch he is sitting on
Other memes focused on the president’s political decisions and their consequences.
In one video circulating on social media, a man is shown sitting on a tree branch while using an axe to cut the very branch on which he is perched. He eventually falls into a canal.
The clip carried a caption describing it as “Trump’s behaviour during the two years before the midterms”, suggesting that his own actions had contributed to his party’s defeat.
Another meme used a different visual metaphor to portray the president’s predicament.
It showed a person struggling to remove a jellyfish stuck firmly to his face, with the creature refusing to come off despite repeated attempts.
The caption described the scene as “Trump trying to get out of the Iran war before the midterms”, drawing on criticism of his handling of the conflict and the difficulties of disengaging from it.
‘Blue tsunami’ sweeps social media
The online reaction was not limited to Iran or memes directly targeting Trump. Supporters of the Democratic Party and other social media users also celebrated the results with hashtags such as #BlueWave and #BlueTsunami.
One post described the Democratic gains as a “tsunami” rather than a wave, while another joked that America was trying to “deport Trump’s majority”, referring to the president’s hardline immigration policies.
Other posts showed imagined reactions from Americans who had voted for Trump in 2024, while some depicted the Democrats celebrating their return to power.
The hashtag-driven reaction spread across X, Instagram and other platforms, with AI-generated clips, edited videos and resurfaced footage becoming part of the post-election conversation.
Iran’s growing meme diplomacy
Iran’s use of memes to target Trump is not new. Since the conflict began in February, Iranian diplomatic missions and official accounts have increasingly used humour, satire and AI-generated videos to communicate political messages and ridicule the US administration.
A report by the Institute for Strategic Dialogue published in April found that Iranian embassy and official accounts had collectively attracted about 900 million views and 22 million likes during the first 50 days of the war. The report described the online activity as a form of digital influence and political messaging.
The midterm results provided another opportunity for Tehran to turn its criticism of Washington into viral content.
While Democrats’ victories will give the party greater powers to scrutinise Trump’s administration and obstruct parts of his legislative agenda, the president remains in office and retains his executive powers.
But on social media, at least, the election aftermath has given his critics a fresh reason to celebrate — and an abundance of material for memes.
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- AFP
- November 4, 2026
