In almost 30 videos, TikTokker @kiera.ln has garnered tens of millions of views. They began to arrive when she posted a clip of herself, in a silk robe and sunglasses in bed, lip-syncing to Donald Trump’s almost infamous comments about Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (whom he calls “Ron DeSanctimonious) who need “a personality transplant.” That was at the end of September. The latest, posted Wednesday, is a lip sync of Trump on Fox News saying he would turn himself in “an A+.”
That most recent video felt like a coming full circle moment. Trump’s “A+” comment came from an appearance on fox and friends in response to a question about how he handled the Covid-19 pandemic. The last person (sort of) to go megaviral for lip-syncing the former president was Sarah Cooper, whose “as a doctorThe video was a parody of Trump’s suggestions that the coronavirus be treated with disinfectant or ultraviolet light.
Released in April 2020, Cooper’s TikTok went viral everywhere from YouTube to X. They had nowhere else to go. It was the height of the Covid-19 lockdowns and everyone was stuck inside, looking for something to laugh about. She ended up landing an agent, a Netflix special, and a role in an Off-Broadway play. He wrote three books, including a memoir he published last year. Cooper is the epitome of the viral TikTok star who turned his internet fame into a career.
@kiera.ln I could do the same. But her videos, almost all titled “’Trump Was Born to Be a Teenager,” are lip syncs for a completely different era. The 2024 election cycle is about being a “brat”; Democrats are coming out to call Trump “weird” now. While Cooper’s videos seemed like an attempt to fact-check the then-president through humor, @kiera.ln’s strategy of making him look like a bad girl goes straight to his insults. Four years ago, or even eight, Democrats (and their online supporters) were reluctant to go so low. Calling his “disgusting“comments disgusting now it is common.
Comparing the former president to a teenager has a long history. Nylon he did it in 2016 with Trump’s tweets, highlighting the perceived meanness or immaturity in his comments. But even then there were those who pointed out that it was almost unfair to the teenage girls, who, in the opinion of a commentatorat least “have a chance to grow up and realize how terrible they have been.” Trump, at 78 years old, does not have much time left to grow emotionally. Campaign emails from his presidential opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris, suggest is “old and quite rare”, presumably having already reached its final form.
Over the summer, Charli XCX, whose album Golf club He launched a whole madness, he tweeted “Kamala IS a brat”shortly after Harris announced she would run for president. It changed the course of the elections and turned the confusing mud green. In Charli’s opinion, being a brat is being vulnerable and messy…and admitting it. Mean girls aren’t brats, but brats know how to be honest about who they are. Brats will meet you on your internet turf and call you a clown while applying their own lipstick. The brats go to the calls his daddy podcast and say that many women are “do not aspire to be humble.”
