The official White House account on X / Twitter has taken a more laissez-faire approach to posting in recent months, interspersing policy updates with AI-generated graphics and ironic catchphrases like "My Body Is A Machine" and its controversial foray into the Studio Ghibli trend.

On July 10th, 2025, the White House posted an image showing the memetic character known as "Chudjak" angrily closing his curtains on a glowing green stock chart.

The caption read, "PANICANS hardest hit," a jab at those who sold off their investments during April's crash, months before NVIDIA and other tech stocks reached record highs.

Some asked if the administration knew the image's origin. Others simply wanted to know what they were looking at.

The meme's backstory, as it turns out, is long, convoluted and threaded through two decades of internet lore. Here's a recap of the "Closing the Curtains" comic and what Chudjak is.

Where Did the Comic Showing a Guy Closing His Curtains Come From?

The original "Closing the Curtains" meme dates back to 2007, based on a webcomic drawn by artist Bob Averill. Posted to his site Plastic Brick Automaton (formerly Lego Robot Comics), the comic depicted a lonely man ranting on internet forums before closing his curtains on two women playing volleyball.

First posted in May 2007, the comic was meant as a satirical jab at Something Awful users mocking Averill's art. By late 2007, the final three panels were being reposted elsewhere, stripped of context and repurposed as a visual shorthand for anti-social or oblivious online behavior.

The format spread widely on Reddit in the early 2010s. A 2010 post to the subreddit /r/pics with New Year's fireworks edited outside the window received over 2,100 upvotes in roughly five years, while a 2012 version showing a mushroom cloud garnered 2,700 upvotes on /r/funny in three years.

What's a 'Chudjak' and When Did the Meme Showing a Chudjak Closing His Curtains Start to Circulate?

The Chudjak (also known as Poljak) is a Wojak variant originally based on the 4chan meme Le /pol/ Face, which caricatures the stereotypical user of the site's far-right political board.

The image is loosely modeled on El Paso shooter Patrick Crusius, and its usage tends to signal disdain for reactionary, conspiratorial internet personalities.

By 2024, the curtain-closing comic was redrawn with a Chudjak figure replacing the original neckbeard.

The meme's bleak tone dovetailed with the growing prevalence of Nothing Ever Happens memes, as seen in an April 2024 post from X user @vergilswarrior reacting to headlines about Iran attacking Israel with drones.

What's a "Panican" and Why Did the White House Post a Meme Showing a Chudjak Closing His Curtains?

"Panican" is a neologism coined by U.S. President Donald Trump on April 7th, 2025, in a Truth Social post defending his reciprocal tariffs amid growing economic uncertainty.

A portmanteau of "panic" and "American," Trump described Panicans as "a new party based on Weak and Stupid people." After months of recovery and record tech stock highs in July, the White House’s X account mocked early sellers with a tweet that read "PANICANS hardest hit."

But their choice of meme, a Chudjak closing his curtains on rising stocks, raised eyebrows among some.

For example, X user @ettingermentum wrote, "Did they forget that the pic here is of the El Paso shooter lol." Another X user, @CiaKids, called it an "uncanny valley legally distinct chudjak jumpscare." The post drew over 5 million views and 24,000 likes in 24 hours.

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For the full history of the Closing the Curtains comic, be sure to check out Know Your Meme's encyclopedia entry for more information.