Donald Trump Jr.'s "Watching My Algorithms Get Crushed" Video

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Donald Trump Jr.'s "Watching My Algorithms Get Crushed" Video is a viral video of President Donald Trump's son Donald Trump Jr. accusing Instagram of suppressing his post reach. Many parodied and mocked the video, which he shot from a low angle while Trump Jr lies on a bed, in a series of social game called the Don Jr. Challenge.

Origin

On October 18th, 2020, Donald Trump Jr. posted a video on Instagram of himself speaking directly to the camera while he lies on his bed. In an uncharacteristically nasally voice, he says, "Hey guys, hope you're doing well. Just watching my algorithms get crushed. I guess I did something to piss off the Instagram gods, so hopefully, you're seeing this stuff anyway." The post received more than 220,000 likes in less than 24 hours (shown below).

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That day, Huff Post reporter tweeted the video.^[1] The post received more than 2.6 million views, 6,600 likes and 2,000 retweets.

The following day, comedian Sarah Cooper posted video of herself lip-syncing to the clip on TikTok. The post received more than 195,000 views, 27,000 reactions and 1,100 comments in less than two days (shown below, left). The video inspired some to also recreate the video on TikTok (example below, center and right).

That day, Comedian Tim Heidecker tweeted a video of himself recreating the video. He wrote, "I tried the Don Junior challenge. Couldn’t do it! Try to complete without laughing." The post received more than 62,000 views, 3,200 like and 120 retweets in less than two days (shown below). Throughout the day, others shared videos and images using the #donjrchallenge hashtag.

Twitter^[2] user @FailsonPod tweeted, "We have a brand new challenge for all our listeners – the #donjrchallenge! Make the same pose as prominent failson Donald Trump, Jr. does in this Instagram video" (shown below).

On October 20th, musician and comedian Nick Lutsko tweeted a video based on the clip called "A message to the Instagram gods," a musical interpretation of Trump Jr.'s video. The tweet received more than 34,000 views, 2,200 likes and 500 retweets in less than 24 hours (shown below).

Several media outlets covered the video, including the Mary Sue,^[3] Insider^[4] and more.

Various Examples

Gettin’ crushed over here, sorry IG gods #Donjrchallenge pic.twitter.com/mrK3NChklZ

— Jameykay Huffman (@Jameykay) October 20, 2020

@timheidecker Am I doing this right? #DonJrChallenge pic.twitter.com/oo18xMzBR2

— Uncle Detective Colt McCaullany🕵🏻‍♂️ (@DENNISGRIMBLE) October 20, 2020