What will Americans do if Trump wins?

9 March 2016

By Alex Murray

BBC News

Donald Trump continued his march towards the Republican Party nomination in the US by taking three more primaries. And where there's a Trump win, there's a social media reaction.

This time it was #ifTrumpwins that gathered momentum, bringing hope and levity to the serious world of campaign politics.

Or, that was the intention when Comedy Central's Midnight programme incited its 500,000 followers to play with the hashtag, external.

Tweet reads: "Time for your fave apocalypse scenario, let's play #IfTrumpWins! Let these examples inspire you to play!"

Over 10,500 tweets mention both @midnight and #iftrumpwins, making up nearly 40% of the original tweets on the hashtag.

The trend peaked at 7,468 tweets in the hour 0500-0600GMT with the fearful perspective of Dubai-based EDM producer Shuja Rabbani, external a top tweet.

Tweet reads "#IfTrumpWins, middle east is bound to be the starting point of World War 3."

Two tweets from @PoliticsJim helped drive the trend, garnering more than 6,000 retweets between them. Both involved satirising Trump's campaign slogan of "Make America Great Again".

One involves a playful take on popular American painter and TV personality Bob Ross, external, whose PBS programme The Joy of Painting brought him worldwide fame in the 1980s and 1990s.

Tweet reads: "See crippling national debt? Now it's a tree. A money tree. Those angry candidates? They're birds now #IfTrumpWins"

Another saw Jim subverting the slogan with cake, external, transforming it to "Bake America Cake Again" - a sentiment all Americans passionate about patisserie can get behind, regardless of politics.

Judging by the spread of branded wine, water and meat Trump brought to his post-victory press conference, no one is going to go hungry if he wins.

Trump meat and wine — Image caption,
The cases of Trump wine and meat were props for a victory speech

While we're on hunger... Well done to Doomsdavid for getting a topical twist into the #ifTrumpwins + Hunger Games formula, external.

Tweet reads: "#IfTrumpWins free Trump steaks to the winner of the annual Hunger Games @midnight"

And for those of you playing along who don't like cake or steak, there's Keem's very American offer in the event that we find ourselves writing "President Trump"...

@KEEMSTAR

This is the latest example of the way in which digital media is now playing its part the Presidential race, following on from Super Tuesday's spike in searches for "move to Canada", which of course got another outing.

Tweet reads: "Canada is going to have to build a wall of their own to keep us out. #IfTrumpWins"

Great work here to cover both borders in one snark.

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