Original Coverage & Source Attribution: www.huffpost.com
The White House crashed and burned on social media Monday as it tried to paint President Donald Trump and his circle as a freedom-seeking pirate crew from “One Piece” — and fans of the anime called out the irony of the post.
In an AI-generated image shared to the White House’s X account, Trump is seen alongside Vice President JD Vance, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Secretary of State Marco Rubio aboard the Going Merry, a ship used by Monkey D. Luffy and his Straw Hats crew.
“The Mark of a Good Crew ,” reads the caption alongside the image, which is modeled off the show’s poster.
The image features the ship’s sheep figurehead in a MAGA hat and a mast with an outline of the Straw Hats’ Jolly Roger emblem.
Gen Zers have flown flags with the emblem in protests across the globe in recent years as fans see it symbolizing Luffy’s push to “liberate oppressed people and fight the autocratic World Government” in the series, CNN noted in a piece last year.
Fans of the iconic franchise clowned the White House on X — including one who questioned why the “celestial dragons” (another name for the elitist World Nobles in the show) were “larping as pirates.”
A popular “One Piece” account simply replied with an image of Trump’s face edited onto the body of Saint Rosward Charlos, a World Noble and one of the least-liked characters in the franchise.
One user declared that whoever ran the White House page was showing “zero media literacy” considering what motivates the Straw Hats.
And another shared a clip from a 2009 episode where Luffy punches “white racist billionaire” Saint Charlos and sends him flying across the room.
The Trump administration has made a habit of promoting its agenda via anime-themed memes. It used clips from “Yu-Gi-Oh!” and “Dragon Ball Z” to hype up the president’s unpopular war of choice in Iran earlier this year.
The anime-inclusive clips also prompted criticism from officials in Japan earlier this year.
