President-elect Donald Trump inspired some worldwide dance crazes during the 2024 election year.
The 78-year-old president-elect had Americans dancing for different reasons during an intense 2024 election cycle.
The signature “Trump dance” became a “dance challenge” across social media platforms when clips of the former president was seen grooving at campaign rallies to the beat of The Village People’s “Y.M.C.A.” song.
Make America Fun Again ???????? #TrumpDance pic.twitter.com/8ejExxt7B1
— Byron Donalds (@ByronDonalds) November 17, 2024
College fraternities, toddlers, sports celebrities, social media influencers and Americans across social media joined in with videos of their own impersonation of the iconic “Trump dance.”
Victor Willis, lead singer of the music group the Village People, defended Trump’s use of his hit song “Y.M.C.A.” and loved that the president was “having a lot of fun with it.”
Willis said that his group has “benefited greatly from use by the President Elect.”
“Y.M.C.A. was stuck at #2 on the Billboard chart prior to the President Elect’s use. However, the song finally made it to #1 on a Billboard chart after over 45 years (and held on to #1 for two weeks) due to the President Elect’s use,” he said in a Facebook post.
Fraternity at Mizzou celebrating the Trump victory. Unthinkable the past 2 elections. Young men are turning conservative. pic.twitter.com/udEW4H4YwM
— T.J. Moe (@TJMoe28) November 11, 2024
Many Trump supporters and tourists have been making stops in New York City in front of Trump Tower to film themselves doing the Trump dance in front of his iconic building.
The Trump Dance lives on ????????????
— TONY™ (@TONYxTWO) December 16, 2024
America is back baby!! pic.twitter.com/J4eAjEBHmN
Another organic dance trend that was inspired by Trump in 2024 occurred when he criticized the Haitian immigrant crisis happening in the small town of Springfield, Ohio in September during a presidential debate.
“Our country is being lost. We’re a failing nation,” he said during an ABC News presidential debate with Vice President Kamala Harris on Sept. 10 about the Ohio town, “They’re eating the dogs, the people that came in, they’re eating the cats. They’re eating they’re eating the pets of the people that live there.”
TikTok users began producing music remixes of Trump’s references to “eating the dogs and “eating the cats” and then a dance craze the song took hold in September.
Trump breaks internet with viral “They’re eating the dogs. They’re eating the cats” remix trend taking over TikTok ????
— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) September 12, 2024
Unstoppable. pic.twitter.com/buZvDLdssA
In addition to the dances, AI-generated memes of Trump rescuing cats and dogs from Springfield spread quickly across the internet.
While social media users were creating Trump dances, the Harris-Walz campaign used their $1 billion presidential campaign to pay content creator influencers anywhere from $200 to $100,000 for political posts.
Trump has given much credit to his son Barron Trump for helping him with choose key famous internet personalities such as Theo Von, Adin Ross and Joe Rogan to appeal to the younger voting population. During his sit-down interview with Adin Ross, Trump went viral doing the Trump dance with the internet star.
During a Dec. 16 press conference at Mar-a-Lago, the president-elect admitted that his mind was changing about the TikTob ban after having seen how it helped his presidential campaign.
“We’ll take a look at TikTok. You know, I have a warm spot in my heart for TikTok,” Trump said.
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He met TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida on Dec. 16. The meeting comes at time when the U.S. is pressuring TikTok to be sold or banned because of alleged links between ByteDance and the Chinese state.
On Wednesday, the Supreme Court agreed to hear arguments about the TikTok ban and how it violates the U.S. Constitution’s free speech protections.