Sending Abdul From the Taliban a Picture of His House

About

Sending Abdul From the Taliban a Picture of His House refers to a statement and claim made by former U.S. President Donald Trump during the September 2024 Presidential Debate, against Vice President Kamala Harris, about having sent "Abdul" (the alleged "head of the Taliban") a picture of his house to intimidate him. Abdul purportedly asked Trump, "Why do you send me a picture of my house?" and Trump replied, "You’re going to have to figure that out, Abdul." The quote inspired backlash because a man named Abdul was not in charge of the Taliban. News outlets speculated that Trump was referring to top Taliban policy leader Abdul Ghani Baradar. Trump's statement was labeled false by fact-checkers and memes mocking his vague and nonsensical statement ensued shortly after. Others believed that the act of Trump sending a picture of Abdul's house to Abdul was powerful and thereby cool.

Origin

On September 10th, 2024, former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris held a debate in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania ahead of the 2024 U.S. Presidential Election. The debate was hosted on ABC News.^[1]

During the debate, Trump discussed a moment during his presidency when the "Taliban was killing our soldiers, a lot of them," he said. To combat this, he claimed to have negotiated with a man named Abdul who he labeled, "the head of the Taliban."

Donald Trump further stated, "And I told Abdul, 'Don’t do it anymore, you do it anymore you’re going to have problems.' And he said, 'Why do you send me a picture of my house?' I said, 'You’re going to have to figure that out, Abdul.' And for 18 months we had nobody killed."^[1]

X^[2] user @EricAbbenante tweeted the clip on September 10th, gaining over 4.6 million views and 45,000 likes in a day (shown below).

The Hill, among other news outlets, speculated that Donald Trump was referencing top Taliban policy leader Abdul Ghani Baradar. The real head of the Taliban, since 2016, is named Hibatullah Akhundzada.^[1]

In a matter of minutes, multiple viral posts about the former President's "Abdul" statement were shared on X, the first of which was posted by X^[3] user @MNateShyamalan, who wrote, "my boy abdul from the taliban," gaining over 67,000 likes in a day (shown below).

Spread

Soon after the abovementioned post, other tweets about Abdul went viral. For instance, on September 10th, 2024, X^[4] user @Daffa_dil_vibe tweeted the cover of Kendrick Lamar's "Not Like Us" Drake diss track, captioned, "Abdul getting a picture of his house like," receiving over 3,600 likes in a day (shown below).

Also on September 10th, X^[5] user @_vaibhavvijay_ humorously raved about Trump's quote, saying that it "will be stuck in my head forever," gaining over 94,000 likes in a day (shown below).

Later on September 10th, 2024, TikToker^[6] @hotvickkrishna posted a video addressing his viewers as Abdul, gaining over 22,000 plays and 1,600 likes in a day (shown below).

The abovementioned video was also shared to X^[7] by @hotvickkrishna on September 10th, where it received over 10,000 likes in a day.

Various Examples

Search Interest

Unavailable.

External References