Shinzo Abe Saved Donald Trump

Submission 8,048

Part of a series on 2024 Donald Trump Rally Shooting. [View Related Entries]

About

Shinzo Abe Saved Donald Trump refers to a series of memes that imagine former Prime Minister of Japan Shinzo Abe, who was assassinated in 2022, saving U.S. presidential candidate and former President Donald Trump during his failed assassination attempt in mid-July 2024. The format is based on a friendly relationship established between the two during Trump's presidency and imagines Abe's spirit protecting Trump from the gunman's bullet.

Origin

On July 13th, 2024, a failed assassination attempt on United States former President and presidential candidate Donald Trump occurred at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.^[1] During the shooting, one of the gunman's bullets grazed Trump's upper right ear before he was rushed off the stage by the Secret Service.

Later on July 13th, X^[2] user @CatholicXenu posted a meme that imagined a conversation between Donald Trump and Shinzo Abe's spirit, with Trump thanking Abe, with whom he reportedly had a friendly relationship during his presidency,^[3] for redirecting the bullet away from his head. The post (shown below) received over 7,200 reposts and 35,000 likes in two days.

Spread

The post was followed by more posts that imagined Shinzo Abe's spirit guarding Donald Trump during the shooting. For example, on July 13th, 2024, X^[4] user @RhianFazzini posted a meme that received over 1,600 reposts and 11,000 likes in two days (shown below, left). Later on July 13th, X^[5]^[6] user @tankappreciator posted a caption meme that was widely circulated in the following hours, receiving an unknown amount of engagement before its removal (shown below, right).

On July 14th, 2024, an anonymous 4chan user made a post imagining Shinzo Abe whispering to Donald Trump to get up as he ducked behind the podium. The /pol/^[7] thread (shown below, left) garnered over 310 replies, with more users posting memes based on the premise in it (example shown below, right).

More memes exploring the joke were then shared on 4chan and X / Twitter in mid-July 2024. Several viral examples imagined Shinzo Abe as Trump's JoJo stand who stopped the bullet from hitting him.