Last week breathed life into the Biden administration. Among the accomplishments: a successful CIA drone operation killing al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahiri; the continued decline of gas prices and larger-than-expected surge in job growth; the fierce rejection of an antiabortion ballot initiative by Kansas voters; and, among other legislative victories, the resuscitation of President Joe Biden‘s massive Build Back Better agenda in the form of the Inflation Reduction Act, which would slash prescription drug prices and make historic investments to combat climate change.
On Sunday, after the historic climate and spending bill passed the Senate, some Biden White House staffers, and even a sitting Democratic senator, celebrated online by embracing a MAGA-inspired meme of Biden. Yes, “Dark Brandon” has found its way to the White House.
The “Dark Brandon” meme—which combines the aesthetic of Dark MAGA (the idea that Trump will return to power with a vengeance and vanquish the Washington establishment), and “Brandon” (from the coded phrase “Let’s Go Brandon” that mostly means “Fuck Joe Biden”)—has recently been promoted by leftist Twitter, and as Slate’s Luke Winkie wrote last week, is “being used to give Joe Biden’s enfeebled brand some long-diminished vigor.”
Clearly, Democrats are excited to have something to be excited about, which might explain the lightheartedness—a departure from the meticulously managed media strategy that the administration has adhered to, often to the frustration of reporters, for the past year and a half. Plus, the “Dark Brandon” portrayal casts the president as a force to be reckoned with, a direct repudiation of all the chatter about Biden’s political feebleness. But even as White House staffers lean into the Very Online snark, Biden 2024 skeptics aren’t going away.
