Twitter Celebrates Donald Trump’s Birthday With #AllBirthdaysMatter And Obama Appreciation Tweets
June 14 was President Donald Trump’s birthday, but instead of sending him birthday wishes, thousands of Twitter users decided to roast him by tagging posts with #AllBirthdaysMatter and writing Obama appreciation posts, Variety reported on Sunday. Early Sunday morning, a few hashtags started trending including #AllBirthdaysMatter, #ObamaAppreciationDay, and #ObamaDayJune14th. By early afternoon, each of the hashtags had been used hundreds of thousands of times.
The hashtags were used on posts that aimed to make fun of and annoy Trump on his birthday.
According to Variety, the hashtag #AllBirthdaysMatter was a play on the slogan “All Lives Matter” that has been used as a response to the Black Lives Matter movement. The phrase has been widely criticized by supporters of Black Lives Matter as dismissive of the systemic and individual racism that Black people face in America. The hashtag was widely used on posts that downplayed the importance of the president’s birthday.
I’d say happy birthday to Donald on his special day, but after all, #AllBirthdaysMatter
— George Takei (@GeorgeTakei) June 14, 2020
The tweets using hashtags that celebrated former President Barack Obama sought to co-opt Trump’s birthday as a day to celebrate the man Trump loves to hate. Twitter users posted pictures and videos of Obama with messages about how much they loved him and how June 14 should officially be Obama Appreciation Day. Many Twitter users also used the hashtag to compare the Obama and Trump presidencies in a way that did not favor President Trump. Many of these tweets didn’t mention Trump’s birthday at all.
Happy #ObamaDayJune14th pic.twitter.com/kvY1QKgUM3
— Ken Jeong (@kenjeong) June 14, 2020
Several celebrities joined in the Trump birthday roast, either tweeting about how all birthdays matter or tweeting their love for President Obama, Variety reported.
Some Twitter users decided to use the #AllBirthdaysMatter hashtag to raise awareness about Black men, women, and children who have lost their lives to police violence. These tweets often included pictures of African Americans who lost their lives to police violence along with messages about how they can’t celebrate any more birthdays and that their birthdays mattered. Some Twitter users also used the hashtag #SayTheirNames on these posts, a hashtag that is commonly used to raise awareness about Black lives lost to police violence. Many of the tweets also included the names of Black folks killed by the police including George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Eric Garner, Sandra Bland, Philando Castille, and more.
This isn’t the first year that Twitter users have decided to troll Trump on his birthday. According to Mashable, on Trump’s birthday last year, Twitter users made #JohnMcCainDay trend in honor of the late Arizona senator. Trump was vocal about his dislike for McCain, just as he’s been vocal about his dislike of Obama, so last year’s trending hashtag had the same intent as this year’s — to celebrate a man Trump dislikes instead of Trump’s birthday.
President Trump spent his birthday attending the graduation at West Point Military Academy and walking awkwardly, much to the delight of his critics.
