Donald Trump Peeking at Melania Trump’s Ballot Made Him an Instant Meme in 2016

During Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign, he went with Melania Trump to cast their ballots side by side. However, the former president's actions during that time quickly became a meme. Cameras caught him peeking at his wife as she cast her vote. Later that day, the event became the first major meme as it was recorded by CNN cameras and quickly spread on Twitter.

Some started to doubt Donald could read while sharing on X, "Trump not so bright watching Melania to see how to do it?! #battot". Another user made a funny comment, "When you don't even know if your own wife is voting for you." Chelsea Handler, a comedian, tweeted the picture along with the message, "When you’re worried that your wife copied off of Michelle again." It was related to the reports that Melania stole some lines from Michelle Obama's speech and used them in her convention speech.

One more reviewer playfully interjected, "He was going to deport her quick and get his 4th wife if she didn't vote for him." Another commented that Melania seemed 'depressed' and added, "lmao. She was probably voting for Clinton. Would you blame her? Poor she is so submissive. She looks depressed all the time." Several detractors also brought up the fact that Donald was breaking the law by prying into his wife's ballot. The idea of a secret ballot is to prevent bullying or intimidation of voters and to guarantee that each voter has the opportunity to cast an anonymous ballot.

One user jotted down, "Why was that allowed, every vote should be private, looks like their voting machines were staged. For the media." Another reviewer wrote, "@realDonaldTrump Umm isn't that illegal!!!????? Hmmmm who's the careless one getting away with such things!!!" One more critic said that the former President's 'got a privacy problem'.

Donald announced his candidacy for president a full year before this meme gained widespread attention. As reported by ABC, he announced in 2015, "We are going to make our country great again. I will be the greatest jobs president that God ever created." He declared to the US citizens at the time, "Sadly the American dream is dead. But if I get elected president I will bring it back, bigger, better, and stronger than ever before."

The former president toured crucial battleground states in 2012 as part of his presidential exploratory committee. In 2016, Donald stated his intention to stay for the long haul by transferring control of The Trump Organization to his children Ivanka, Donald Jr., and Eric. He also planned on withdrawing from his popular show The Apprentice. He said back then, "They all said, a lot of the pundits on television, well, Donald will never run, and one of the main reasons is he's private and he's probably not as successful as everybody thinks. So I said to myself, you know, nobody is ever going to know unless I run because I'm really proud of my success."