Trump Calling Enrique Peña Nieto

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About

Trump Calling Enrique Peña Nieto refers to a series of video remixes of United States President Donald Trump's attempt to call Mexico President Enrique Peña Nieto, which was fraught with technical difficulties. Online, people have replaced the audio in the video various other soundtracks for comedic effect.

Origin

On August 27th, 2018, President Trump announced the agreement of a new trade deal with Mexico to replace the North American Free Trade Agreement. Following the announcement, Trump, with the press present, attempted to call Mexico President Nieto, but due to technical difficulties was unable to connect the call immediately. As a result, the U.S. President was seen attempting to make the call for several moments with cameras rolling (video below).^[1]

Spread

Following the release of the videos of Trump attempting the call, people began remixing the video for humorous effect. Twitter^[2] user @McJesse tweeted a version of the call that features a clip from the American television comedy The Office.

Twitter^[3] user @bubbapro tweeted a variation set to the song "The Waiting" by American recording artist Tom Petty (shown below).

Some of the most popular variations of the call were set to the theme song from the television comedy Veep. That day, Twitter^[4] user @arlenparsa tweeted one such example with the caption, "so just as an experiment I put the president's _supremely awkward oval office moment to the @VeepHBO closing credits theme song just now. uhh it works v well." The post (shown below) received more than 19,000 retweets and 59,000 likes in 24 hours.

Several media outlets covered the call, including The Daily Dot, ^[6] CNN,^[7] Time^[8] and more.

so just as an experiment I put the president's _supremely awkward oval office moment to the VeepHBO</a> closing credits theme song just now. uhh it works v well. <a href="https://t.co/uWO5d7EVTF">pic.twitter.com/uWO5d7EVTF</a></p>— Arlen Parsa (arlenparsa) August 27, 2018

Grumpy Trump

In addition to remixing the song, people meme'd another moment from the event. Prior to the phone call at the event, Trump was photographed seated with his arms crossed while pursing his lips when asked about the recent death of Senator John McCain. Online, people captioned the a photograph of the moment, characterizing Trump as grumpy, petulant and stubborn (examples below).^[5]

The following day, The Daily Dot^[9] published a list of some of tweets about the meme.