Donald Trump's Nero Fiddling Tweet

Overview

Donald Trump's Nero Fiddling Tweet refers to a gaffe made by President Donald Trump in a March 2020 tweet. Trump retweeted a meme of himself playing the fiddle with the text "my next piece is called nothing can stop what is coming" and mentioned that he didn't know what it meant but that "it sounds good." Over the next few days, Twitter users compared Trump to Roman emperor Nero who played the fiddle while Rome was burning.

Background

On March 8th, 2020, Twitter user and Assistant to the President and Director of Social Media at the White House @DanScavino^[2] tweeted a meme of Trump fiddling (shown below, left). The tweet gained over 40,000 likes and 14,400 retweets in two days. That same day, @realDonaldTrump^[3] retweeted the meme adding the caption, "Who knows what this means, but it sounds good to me!" (shown below, right). The tweet accumulated over 154,900 likes and 37,600 retweets in two days.

Developments

On March 8th, 2020, Twitter user @FrankFigliuzzi1^[4] replied to Trump's tweet saying, "It means that playing golf while Americans die during an uncontained epidemic makes you look like the Emperor Nero fiddling while Rome burned. The fact that neither you nor your social media director understand this meme and retweeted it makes you even more oblivious than Nero." The reply recieved over 13,000 likes and 3,300 retweets in two days. That same day, Twitter user @eugenegu^[5] also replied saying, "It means Trump is just like Nero, but instead of playing the fiddle while Rome burns, Trump plays the violin in a stupid meme as our country is engulfed in a coronavirus outbreak" (shown below, right). The tweet gained over 12,600 likes and 1,400 retweets in two days.

On March 10th, Twitter user @PaulLidicul posted a video edit of Trump giving a speech on the Coronavirus outbreak with the caption, "Fixed it.(Nero fiddled while rome burned) #TrumpRecession" (shown below). The tweet received over 720 likes in a day. The Hill^[1] published an article on the gaffe.

Various Examples

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