Trump Hall of Presidents Robot

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

About

Trump Hall of Presidents Robot refers to a series of jokes, references and image macros to the introduction of the animatronic representation of President Donald Trump at the Disney World stage show "The Hall of Presidents."

Origin

On December 18th, 2017, the website Walt Disney World Magic released a video of the "Hall of Presidents" theme park attraction at Walt Disney World following a year of renovations.^[1] The video featured the before unseen animatronic puppet representation of President Donald Trump, which according to Thomas Smith, editorial content director for Disney Parks, includes audio comments recorded by President Trump.^[2] The video by WMW Magic (shown below) received more than 270,000 views in less than 24 hours.

Spread

Shortly after the video was uploaded, it began receiving a negative reaction online, particularly in regards to the animatronic's appearance. Some online compared the Trump animatronic to actor Jon Voight. That day, Twitter ^[3] user @2xUEss posted a side-by-side picture of the animatronic and a picture of Voight with the comment, "Disney gave the job of Trump in the Hall of Presidents to Jon Voight and I can’t stop laughing." The post (shown below, left) received more than 1,200 retweets and 4,300 likes in less than 24 hours. Others online made similar comments, joking that the Trump animatronic looks very similar to Jon Voight.

The animatronic spread to other social media sites as well, which led to additional comparisons alongside Jon Voight. On the microblogging social network Tumblr, user captainsnoop^[11] compared the Trump animatronic to his opponent during the 2016 elections Hillary Clinton, implying they initially made an animatronic for Clinton but had to change it after she didn't win the Presidential Election. The post managed to gather over 60,000 notes in less than 24 hours.

Some also commented on the appearance of the other president animatronics on stage, interpreting their stares toward the Trump animatronic as negative. Twitter^[4] user @goldengateblonde tweeted a picture of the other animatronics percieved reactions with the comment "Disney finally put Trump in the Hall of Presidents and the others are all 'can you believe this schmuck.'" The post (shown below) received more than 2,600 retweets and 8,300 likes in less than 24 hours.

Several media outlets covered the release and reaction to the Trump animatronic, including USA Today,^[5] The Daily Beast,^[6] CNN,^[7] Fox News,^[8] NPR,^[12] CBS^[9] and more. Twitter^[10] published a Moments page to archive the reaction to the of animatronic.