Donald Trump Trapping Liberals In Crystals

Submission 393

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About

Donald Trump Trapping Liberals In Crystals refers to a meme trend popularized by Donald Trump supporters in the days and weeks leading up to the 2024 U.S. Presidential Election. The meme series appears to be a reference to soul gems from Elder Scrolls, which are magical stones with the souls of the dead trapped inside, or soulstones from Warcraft and Diablo. The trend, which often uses Chudjak as the figure trapped in the gems, likely originated from memes posted by Twitter / X user @MysteryGrove in August 2024, with jokes about Trump trapping the souls of liberals and detractors in crystals gaining virality in late October and early November 2024.

Origin

The running gag about former President Donald Trump "trapping" liberals and political opponents in crystals appears to have been started by Twitter / X users @MysteryGrove and @CatImcat, with the latter posting an image of a Chudjak trapped in a crystal on August 12th, 2024.^[1]

Sometime before August 28th, 2024, @MysteryGrove quoted the post, writing, "He doubted. He posted fake polls and said it was over. Now he's imprisoned in the crystals for all eternity. Maybe there's a lesson there?"^[4]

On August 13th, @MysteryGrove then posted a Trumpisatva meme about him trapping someone in a crystal. The deleted post was reposted by @grovearchivist.^[5]

On September 10th, 2024, @MysteryGrove^[2] reposted an image of the Donald Trump on the Phone meme with the Chudjak Crystal edited into it. The image was originally posted by @CatImcat^[3] on September 5th.

Spread

More conservative internet users shared jokes about Donald Trump "trapping" people in crystals in October 2024, as seen in another post by X user @MysteryGrove^[6] from October 13th, 2024, that gathered over 3,000 likes in a month. The post read, "They say the first 10,000 years in the crystals are the longest. I hope your little Trump doubter post was worth it, pal!"

X^[7] user @Aelthemplaer posted a meme about Trump and crystals on October 19th, 2024, joking about Nick Fuentes being trapped in one after he denounced Trump that month. The post gathered over 1,000 likes in three weeks.

On October 21st, 2024, X^[8] user @MeinGottNiles posted an image of Trump edited into a scene from Elder Scrolls, writing, "So he says to me, 'Donald, you can't trap my soul. You're out of grand soul gems.' Grand! Can you believe this guy, folks?
So anyway, he's trapped in a petty soul gem now. In my inventory. Right next to a scribe." The post gathered over 4,000 likes in two weeks.

On October 27th, 2024, X^[9] user @ElectionLegal posted a Joe Rogan interview parody meme in which Trump says, "They’re all going in the crystals Joe, trust me – you won’t believe it." The post gathered over 4,000 likes in a week.

By late October, the jokes about people being banished to "the crystal" appeared in contexts outside of the 2024 election, as seen in an October 29th post^[10] by X user @ElHermanosBro regarding Luce.

In early November 2024 during the days leading up to the election, an old tweet of Trump talking about his "crystal collection" came to be quoted by his followers to share more memes about him trapping people in crystals, as seen in a November 4th, 2024, image posted by X user @GranTorinoDSA.^[11] The post gathered over 6,000 likes in a day.