Dark Brandon Returns, as Biden’s 2024 Campaign Embraces Meme
‘Best worn while vanquishing Malarkey,’ one ‘Dark Brandon’ campaign T-shirt reads.
Bright-eyed and ready to end the malarkey, “Dark Brandon” is back and ready for primetime, at least according to President Biden’s 2024 re-election website.
On its official webpage, the campaign is selling a “Dark T-Shirt” as merchandise, featuring the signature red glowing eyes associated with the Dark Brandon character.
“Best worn while vanquishing Malarkey,” the T-shirt, which the campaign says is American-made and union-printed, reads.
The site is also using the Dark Brandon image featured on the T-shirt as a 404 error page when users have problems loading the website. “You’re lost, Jack,” the 404 error page reads. “Let’s get you back on the rails.”
For the uninitiated, Dark Brandon is a meme that members of President Biden’s White House co-opted from right wing communities online.
A byproduct of the “Let’s go Brandon” chant, created as a means of surreptitiously attacking the president by disguising the vulgar phrase “F— Joe Biden,” the Dark Brandon meme has become a favorite of some of the president’s more online supporters.
Initially used by conservatives online to mock the president or portray him as some sort of nefarious actor, his supporters later began using the image — which portrays the president with glowing eyes — to portray him as a quietly effective political actor.
The style and imagery of the meme originated among the so-called Dark MAGA community of Trump supporters. The Dark MAGA style was developed by President Trump’s supporters, and often depicts the former president in intimidating ways, such as the Terminator from the “Terminator” film franchise.
The Dark Brandon style rose to prominence among Mr. Biden’s supporters last summer, culminating in tweets from Democrats and White House staffers using the meme. The most famous of these is from a White House staffer named Andrew Bates, which simply reads: “Dark Brandon is crushing it.”
The president’s director of digital strategy, Rob Flaherty, has also embraced the meme, sometimes tweeting images of the president with glowing eyes and promoting images of the president in dark settings.
Now it looks like Dark Brandon images, which often feature famous “Bidenisms” like the word “malarkey” or calling people “Jack,” will play at least some role in Mr. Biden’s re-election campaign.
