The Michael Knowles Show - March 14, 2026


Michael Reacts to the SPICIEST White House Memes

Topics
deportation memes
Hosted by
Michael Knowles
Mentioned
Reagan Download Hallow Joe Pesci Donald Trump Biden Obama Jean Baudrillard White House Superman Gestapo Davies Gossip Jose Bush John
Friendly Fire๏ผš Iran War Debate, 2028 Presidential Buzz & Oscars Preview Ep. 1932 - The Oscars Take A Swing At TPUSA

Episode Stats


Length

15 minutes

Words per minute

153.87

Word count

2,392

Sentence count

284

Harmful content

Toxicity

10

sentences flagged

Hate speech

9

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

In this episode of ASMR, we revisit some of the most memorable White House memes to be published to date, including some of our favorite from the second term of President Trump's administration. We also hear from the official ex-White House ASMR: illegal alien deportations.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Toxicity classifications generated with s-nlp/roberta_toxicity_classifier .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
Topics generated with Qwen2.5-3B-Instruct.
Hosts, guests, and mentioned names generated with spaCy (en_core_web_sm), reconciled against Wikidata.
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00:00:10.720 Wrinkled chic.
00:00:12.100 Feel the aero bubbles melt.
00:00:13.880 It's mind bubbling.
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00:00:44.980 Everyone's focusing on President Trump's performance on the economy.
00:00:49.340 The Dow is over 50,000.
00:00:51.400 Or immigration.
00:00:52.320 The president has now fired her as secretary of DHS.
00:00:57.700 Or foreign affairs or whatever.
00:01:00.000 And there's a lot, there's a lot obviously to be excited about and talk about.
00:01:06.820 But people have not paid sufficient attention to the White House's supreme use of memes in the second term.
00:01:14.580 You gotta remember a lot of, a lot of the people there were kids, teenagers just coming up during the meme wars of 2016.
00:01:22.800 Now we're seeing that flower and those, those meme war vets are now in the halls of power.
00:01:27.560 So the producers have compiled some of the greatest White House memes to be published to date.
00:01:34.320 Take it away.
00:01:35.320 This is actually from the administration, like DHS and the White House.
00:01:59.480 Mr. Davies, is that right?
00:02:00.460 Yes, it is.
00:02:01.300 The, uh, I wish I could pull up in front of me.
00:02:02.860 It was supposed to be in the video itself where you could see it.
00:02:05.280 But, uh, yeah, that is.
00:02:06.720 Very impressive.
00:02:08.500 Very, you know, I, it's funny because I'm, for all my doom scrolling, I don't know, my algo is real niche stuff.
00:02:14.620 It's basically like, you know, the Merovingian dynasty, like facts you didn't know and weird ukulele videos.
00:02:22.260 So I, I actually haven't seen a lot of these.
00:02:24.960 That's great.
00:02:26.080 Offer only valid to illegal aliens. 0.68
00:02:28.000 Because it's one thing, it's, that's a level of memory that I really like.
00:02:30.820 The one level, the, the most obvious level would be, hey, you illegal aliens, you get out of here. 0.80
00:02:36.100 We're coming for you. 0.99
00:02:37.240 We're going to get you.
00:02:38.220 But it's a, it's a deeper level of meaning and irony to come out and say, hey, great news.
00:02:44.760 Illegals, we'll fly you anywhere you want to go as long as it's your country of origin. 1.00
00:02:49.020 Like get out, get on board right now. 0.68
00:02:50.740 It's real exciting.
00:02:51.340 Okay.
00:02:51.740 Next one.
00:02:53.560 Here we go again.
00:03:03.220 Here we go again.
00:03:04.260 This one's to be expected because the, the postmodern philosopher that everyone's talking about right now in the kind of right wing intellectual circles, even somewhat mainstream circles.
00:03:29.100 This is this guy, Jean Baudrillard.
00:03:30.960 There are all sorts of reasons why he's the man of the hour and people like to cite him.
00:03:35.680 Many people haven't even read his books, but he's an interesting writer.
00:03:38.720 If you can make it through very confusing postmodern language.
00:03:41.940 But anyway, one of the reasons is he wrote this book called, I think it was the Iraq war didn't happen or the Gulf war didn't happen.
00:03:49.100 That's one of his that I actually have not read.
00:03:50.720 But the idea being that we now live in a hyper reality that is in many ways divorced from the underlying reality.
00:03:58.740 So our experience of war now, be it in Venezuela or Iran, is really no different than the experience of a video game.
00:04:08.520 With that meme, there's actually a pretty deep level of meaning in how the American right sees itself and sees the world.
00:04:19.000 And I think mostly correctly.
00:04:21.380 OK, next one.
00:04:22.040 This is from the official ex-White House ASMR illegal alien deportations flight.
00:04:26.300 OK.
00:04:38.520 Just the sound of chains.
00:04:47.280 I was expecting like whispers.
00:04:50.260 No, just chains.
00:04:55.820 Wow.
00:04:56.620 Well, much, much funnier than I was expecting.
00:05:11.220 What are the sounds of deportation?
00:05:12.900 Like, hola, Jose, you're going home.
00:05:15.500 You know, that that would that would be the basic level meme.
00:05:18.020 But no, just chains banging on a metal staircase.
00:05:21.600 Yo.
00:05:22.000 But by the way, some people are going to say this is gratuitous.
00:05:26.640 They're going to say this is, you know, performative and it's red meat to the base or whatever.
00:05:30.880 It serves a strategic purpose because a ton of these guys reenter.
00:05:35.600 You deport them.
00:05:36.600 And then under Biden, under Obama, they just reenter.
00:05:39.880 They just come right back.
00:05:40.820 I mean, some of these people have been deported like five times.
00:05:42.660 So if you want to actually keep them out, you need to make the process of being deported a little less comfortable, let's say.
00:05:52.400 And chaining people up and then videoing them being chained up and then posting that to hundreds of millions of people on the Internet in America alone is, that's one way to do it.
00:06:04.240 Okay, next one.
00:06:05.180 Go to hallow.com slash Knowles, K-N-W-L-E-S. 0.96
00:06:07.760 We are deep in Lent, walking steadily toward Holy Week, the cross, and the resurrection.
00:06:11.640 This is not a season for the half-hearted.
00:06:13.680 Lent is a summons to conversion, to strip away what dulls the soul and return to God with sincerity.
00:06:19.200 This time of year demands movement, prayer, fasting, and self-gift.
00:06:23.360 And our sponsor, Hallow, helps you do that.
00:06:25.380 Do not drift through Lent.
00:06:26.680 Live it.
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00:06:31.360 They have meditations on the passion, scripture, reflections, and sacred music.
00:06:35.640 Real prayer that draws you out of noise and into encounter.
00:06:38.640 Next, fasting.
00:06:39.640 Yes, from food, but more often from what's poisoning your interior life.
00:06:43.080 Gossip, constant scrolling, cynicism, complaint.
00:06:47.020 Fasting is not punishment, it's clarity.
00:06:49.780 It frees the heart and makes space for grace.
00:06:51.780 Finally, give.
00:06:52.920 Real charity always costs something.
00:06:55.180 Offer patience when you'd rather be sharp.
00:06:57.160 Mercy when you've been hurt.
00:06:58.580 Love when it's undeserved.
00:07:00.640 That's what it means to imitate Christ.
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00:07:11.840 All right, this next one's from the official White House Instagram caption,
00:07:16.520 Justice the American Way, with 64 million views.
00:07:22.880 Wake up, Daddy-some. 0.94
00:07:24.760 Welcome home, sir.
00:07:26.360 Strength and honor.
00:07:27.020 Strength and honor.
00:07:27.740 What will you do without freedom?
00:07:29.460 Mavericks inbound.
00:07:34.640 You can't conceive of what I'm capable of.
00:07:37.960 Finishing this fight.
00:07:39.380 But yeah, I'm thinking I'm back.
00:07:42.620 I'm here to fight for truth and justice in the American way.
00:07:45.160 I am the danger.
00:07:46.740 Time to find out.
00:07:49.900 Maximum effort.
00:07:51.480 Pressure.
00:07:52.620 Here it comes.
00:07:55.660 Four.
00:07:56.900 Now hit this.
00:07:59.160 Flawless victory.
00:08:00.480 Can I say something?
00:08:04.540 Can I say something?
00:08:05.160 This is Reagan-esque.
00:08:08.960 And it's not Reagan-esque in the sense that Reagan was really polished and well, you know,
00:08:13.460 because the 80s were more restrained than now.
00:08:15.640 But this is Reagan-esque in the sense that when Reagan came in, he made people, for the
00:08:19.840 first time in almost a decade, feel good about being Americans, feel like America was a good
00:08:27.460 place, stood for good things, that we should be strong, that it is good for us to demonstrate
00:08:32.420 our strength.
00:08:33.080 All of those things that Biden downplayed, that Obama more or less outright denied, that
00:08:38.000 Bush fumbled.
00:08:39.840 You get that.
00:08:40.720 You get that.
00:08:41.320 And you think, well, if America's big cultural export, sorry, our big export period is our
00:08:49.040 popular culture and is Hollywood and are these narratives, then why aren't we using
00:08:52.940 that for our own good?
00:08:54.260 I am the danger.
00:08:56.300 I remember, this was 20 years ago now maybe, when Superman got rid of truth, justice, and
00:09:01.940 the American way as his motto.
00:09:03.960 And it became truth, justice, and that other stuff.
00:09:06.720 Does he still stand for truth, justice, all that stuff?
00:09:10.240 Wait, what?
00:09:11.320 They were embarrassed of America.
00:09:12.700 It was so just cringe.
00:09:14.860 It was kind of peak American decline.
00:09:18.700 And then we come out and we use it again.
00:09:20.440 We say, yeah, this is who we are, man.
00:09:22.420 Pretty scary, ain't we?
00:09:25.220 This is what?
00:09:26.120 A message to terrorists from the White House TikTok.
00:09:33.120 You want to see me do it again?
00:09:36.920 You want to see me do it again?
00:09:38.400 You want to see me do it again?
00:09:42.280 Yeah, what makes it work, obviously, is Spongebob.
00:09:47.120 It's not enough to just post videos of the bombs going off.
00:09:51.800 It'd be fine.
00:09:52.840 That's what propaganda does.
00:09:54.780 And it would be refreshing because America has been so weak and loath to show our strength.
00:09:59.400 But the Spongebob paradoxically makes it much more menacing.
00:10:05.540 Makes it much more menacing than just the bomb.
00:10:07.240 It's like that scene in Casino.
00:10:09.540 You know that great scene in Casino where Joe Pesci is talking to the banker?
00:10:12.280 And he goes, hey, I want my money.
00:10:15.680 Where's my money?
00:10:16.700 And the banker says, oh, well, you know, haha, well, I want my money because what I'm going to do is go down to the bank. 0.98
00:10:23.340 And if you don't give me my money, I'm going to crack your skull in with a crowbar. 0.98
00:10:29.620 And then in 20 years, when I get out of prison, you might be coming out of your coma. 0.99
00:10:35.000 And you know what I'm going to do? 1.00
00:10:36.380 I'll crack your skull again because I'm stupid. 1.00
00:10:39.920 I don't care about prison. 1.00
00:10:41.340 And it's a very menacing scene.
00:10:43.380 It's menacing because it seems irrational and absurd.
00:10:47.600 That's Spongebob.
00:10:48.760 Spongebob is Joe Pesci.
00:10:50.140 Donald Trump is Joe Pesci in Casino.
00:10:52.200 Okay.
00:10:52.880 Here illegally, the deportation express this holiday season.
00:10:57.500 Believe you can go home.
00:11:00.040 Okay.
00:11:00.520 That's what makes it make sense.
00:11:01.960 So it's all about, you know, going home again.
00:11:04.500 Hey, where are you going?
00:11:07.200 Home.
00:11:08.560 Oh, okay.
00:11:10.220 Okay, good.
00:11:10.920 You are going home.
00:11:12.160 That raises it from the level of just mere provocation to an actual work of mimetic art.
00:11:18.900 I like it.
00:11:19.660 Oh, my God.
00:11:22.620 Oh, my God.
00:11:27.260 Oh, my God.
00:11:35.140 Oh, my God.
00:11:38.180 Oh, my God.
00:11:38.800 Oh, my God.
00:11:40.920 Oh, my God.
00:11:42.600 Oh, my God.
00:11:43.220 Oh, my God.
00:11:43.660 Oh, my God.
00:11:44.440 Yeah, it's funny. It's funny because it's in your face. It's a pretty easily recognizable
00:11:57.340 cultural reference. You wouldn't get it if you're, I don't know, if you're like a 1.00
00:12:01.040 boomer who only watches cable news or something, you wouldn't get it. But then you wouldn't be
00:12:05.520 on these social platforms anyway. But if you're on the platforms, you get this Spotify thing.
00:12:08.840 And I like that it's personal. What makes this work, what separates it from cringe
00:12:14.200 to actually pretty effective is that they're going after specific journalists is that you
00:12:19.160 guys are like you, John or whatever, whoever it was. You're the liar. That's good. It's 0.99
00:12:24.000 good. It's got, it's edgy. Got edge. Next one. Yeah, the penguin. Penguin's great. The penguin
00:12:30.840 stuff was great, especially because it triggered the libs. Actually, there aren't any penguins
00:12:38.500 in the Arctic. Did you know the penguins are the Antarctic? You think, yeah, shut up, nerd.
00:12:42.700 Nerd. Yeah, you would say that, nerd. Nerds. Guess what? We're going to add more penguins 1.00
00:12:49.160 to our memes. We're going to give you a swirly. No, but they don't, they're not there. They're
00:12:54.820 not, aren't. There aren't actually penguins in Greenland. Did you know that? Yeah, we know.
00:12:58.500 We know. We know. We always know.
00:13:00.660 We heard your feedback. You can't believe this is the real White House.
00:13:07.120 I'm G. I can't, well, I like that they capitalized the G, even in OMG. You don't want to use the
00:13:10.880 name of God in vain or, you know, even the initial, but they did lowercase m and capitalized
00:13:14.820 G. I kind of appreciate that. Maybe it wasn't intentional, but in any case, okay. I can't
00:13:17.940 believe the White House posted this. However, the Dems shutdown means most of our team is furloughed.
00:13:23.720 So we have an important announcement. We're doubling down.
00:13:33.780 That's great. There was a, during, during the shutdown, when they started posting major
00:13:38.620 White House events, but it was with like pictures of a thumb in front of the camera or kind of
00:13:43.800 sideways and blurry. It says, sorry, our photographer's furloughed. We don't, we just, all we got is
00:13:48.640 our cell phones now. It's good. They get it, man. They get it. It's also because the, you
00:13:53.020 know, the median age of the White House staff is like 14. You know, I mean, it's, it's young,
00:13:57.760 it's vibrant, energetic, good looking. All right. Which one of the memes do you think
00:14:03.120 was the most effective? Which one's your favorite? My favorite one of these,
00:14:08.960 the most effective probably are the deportation ones. Really, all of the deportation ones,
00:14:17.980 because they check so many boxes. They do send a message to the illegal aliens. Don't forget over 0.99
00:14:25.120 a million illegal aliens self-deported in the first year. Even as they were being processed,
00:14:29.300 they just left because they gave up because they didn't think they were going to be able to stay.
00:14:32.300 So send a message to them, send a message to the American people. Don't forget Trump won the
00:14:36.700 popular vote running on that issue. And it was funny and it was light. And, you know, one way the Dems
00:14:42.460 used the immigration issue, the deportation issue, even though they lose on the issue generally,
00:14:46.300 they were able to try to turn it against Republicans by making the Republicans seem scary.
00:14:51.000 And, you know, like they were the Gestapo or something. So when you have these light kind
00:14:55.740 of funny deportation memes, it undercuts even that. It was very effective. The ones of bombing
00:15:00.480 the terrorists and the foreign enemies and all that kind of stuff, they were good. And the most 0.99
00:15:05.800 effective one was SpongeBob for all the reasons I previously said, because the absurdity is so menacing.
00:15:11.440 But, no, I give it to the deportation memes. Really, I mean, the flight away, you know,
00:15:18.560 get your vacation now. Or the nastiest one, the one that really resonated with me,
00:15:25.200 chains on a metal staircase. Ain't going to be entering the country looking at that. Okay,
00:15:30.000 that's it. All right. I liked them. I liked them. See you next time.