President Joe Biden embraced the “Dark Brandon” meme in a video released on the same day that former President Donald Trump was arraigned on charges related to January 6.
“A cup of Joe never tasted better,” the president’s Twitter (X) account stated on Thursday in a tweet with a video of Biden drinking a cup of coffee from a mug bearing the “Dark Brandon” meme wedged between 2024. “I like my coffee dark,” Biden says in the video. He also provided a link to purchase the mug.
A cup of Joe never tasted better.
Grab yours: https://t.co/4fbxCBQNPZ pic.twitter.com/s2qboyE7C1
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) August 3, 2023
“Dark Brandon, dark roast. Tea drinkers welcome. Purchase is a donation to Biden Victory Fund,” the product description reads on the Biden/Harris website, where the mug is being sold for $22.
The “Dark Brandon” meme originated during the 2022 mid-term election in the wake of the president’s infamously divisive speech in which he characterized MAGA Republicans as a dark threat to American democracy.
“MAGA Republicans do not respect the constitution,” he said. “They do not believe in the rule of law, they do not believe in the rule of law, they do not recognize the will of the people.”
“MAGA forces are determined to take this country backwards,” he added. “Backwards to an America where there is no right to choose. No right to privacy. No right to contraception. No right to marry who you love. They promote authoritarian leaders and they fan the flames of political violence.”
In response to online MAGA outrage, supporters of Biden coined the phrase “Dark Brandon” — a reference to the “Let’s Go, Brandon” phenomenon — and quickly began sharing memes that featured the president smiling with his eyes glowing red as if he were the Terminator. Writing for the Independent, Alex Woodward said that the memes transformed the president from a grandfatherly figure into something more aggressive.
“The image of Dark Brandon not only reclaims the ‘Brandon’ label but subverts the explicitly fascist ‘Dark MAGA’ aesthetic, giving liberals who otherwise have been on the receiving end of a years-long meme war the ammunition to participate,” Woodward wrote.
“With Dark Brandon, the 78-year-old Biden undergoes an ironic transformation as a bearded, eyepatch-wearing Metal Gear Solid figure or laser-eyed anime character,” he added.
On Tuesday, special prosecutor Jack Smith announced that a grand jury indicted former President Trump for a third time on charges related to January 6.
As Breitbart’s Joel Pollak noted, the indictment “was announced the day after President Joe Biden had been implicated in a long-running influence peddling scheme by his son Hunter’s former business partner, Devon Archer, in testimony before the House Oversight Committee.”
“Trump was indicted on four counts: one on conspiracy to defraud the U.S.; one on conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding; one of obstruction and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding; and one of conspiracy against rights,” Pollak explained.
“The indictment does not indicate how prosecutors were able to establish what Trump himself believed, other than the fact that he had been informed by others that his suspicions of fraud were false; nor does it distinguish the case from the ‘Russia collusion’ hoax spread by Trump’s opponents, including within the Department of Justice, after he won the 2016 presidential election,” Pollak added.
Paul Roland Bois joined Breitbart News in 2021. He also directed the award-winning feature film, EXEMPLUM, which can be viewed for FREE on YouTube or Tubi. A high-quality, ad-free stream can also be purchased on Google Play or Vimeo on Demand. Follow him on Twitter @prolandfilms or Instagram @prolandfilms.
