How the Trump-Harris debate played out on social media: ‘Maga mad libs’

In the days leading up to the presidential debate, a 2020 tweet from the former Trump team lawyer Rudy Giuliani recirculated on X: once again, Americans find themselves gearing up for, as he put it, “The debat.”

Though the debate aired on ABC News, with pre- and post-game commentary from anchors, the real buzz took place on social media, where users reacted to the night’s most viral moments.

Donald Trump and Kamala Harris met for the first time ever on the Philadelphia stage, and their initial greeting became the first strong visual of the night. Harris strode across the stage, hand out, nearly forcing Trump to accept her handshake, even though it appeared as though he planned to rebuff her.

Social media snarks noted how Harris introduced herself to Trump – “Kamala Harris” – as if he didn’t already know. “Kamala introducing herself lmao she’s a gag,” the television writer Ira Madison III wrote on X.

Harris’s supporters, known as the “K-Hive”, loved the vice-president’s frequent laugh and relaxed speaking style. Her performance on Tuesday was subdued, but not dead, they opined. As Trump spoke, they zoomed in on how Harris stared him down, sometimes appearing incredulous, confused, generally oozing a sort of “can you believe this guy?” demeanor.

The straight-faced fact checks from the ABC News debate moderators, Linsey Davis and David Muir, heightened certain absurdist quotes from Trump. When the former president repeated a fear-mongering falsehood that some US states allow for the killing of babies after they are born, Davis clarified: “There is no state in this country in which it’s legal to kill a baby after it’s born.”

But viewers were still happy that many of Trump’s words did not go unchecked. (Unless those viewers were pro-Trump: his allies, including Tulsi Gabbard and Lindsey Graham, accused the network of policing him while going easy on Harris.)

Ditto for when Muir countered Trump’s assertion that Haitian immigrants abducted and ate pets in Springfield, Ohio – a rumor that began on Facebook, but was quickly shot down by city officials, even as JD Vance and other Republicans repeated the claims this week.

“They’re eating the dogs, the people that came in, they’re eating the cats, they’re eating the pets of the people that live there,” Trump rambled, adding more pet lore to an election season filled with talk about “crazy cat ladies”.

The former Public Enemy rapper Flavor Flav got in on the joke, tweeting: “Pet Shop Boys better stay inside and lock the doors. You too Snoop Dogg. And Pitbull.”

But some progressive groups were upset Harris laughed through the exchange, which minimized Trump’s racist, anti-immigrant dog whistle.

Another Trump soundbite for the books: when speaking on IVF, the former president, who has said he wants to make the procedure free for Americans, said: “I have been a leader on fertilization.” Perhaps the grossest statement ever uttered on a debate stage.

The former president also conjured many Maga fears in one line, when he accused Harris of being in favor of allowing “transgender operations on illegal aliens in prison”. Many described the bonkers claim as a feat of anti-woke Mad Libs, combining multiple culture wars in one visual.

Despite protests outside of the convention center from pro-Palestinian groups and young voters calling for a ceasefire in Gaza, the debate dedicated only a short segment to questions on the Israel-Gaza situation. Harris’s response was a boilerplate statement she’s made before about reaffirming her support for Israel while acknowledging “too many innocent Palestinians have been killed”. The quote invited rhetorical questions from anti-war viewers at home: what would be an acceptable number?

As the night came to a close, Trump delivered a line that was unfortunately relatable. When asked by the moderators to confirm that he doesn’t “have a plan” for healthcare, he retorted: “I have a concept of a plan” – and who hasn’t stumbled through a work meeting like that?

But overall, the feeling on social media was that the former president floundered, and that Harris successfully baited him. A rare, bipartisan statement we might all be able to agree on: from Trump’s batty zingers to Harris’s lack of a poker face, both sides delivered enough meme fuel to last until November.

Read more about the 2024 US election:

• Fact-checking the presidential debate

• Harris slams Trump for falsehoods in fiery debate

• Taylor Swift endorses Harris in post signed ‘childless cat lady’

• ‘Maga mad libs’: how the debate played out on social media

• Presidential poll tracker