The Art of Rage Bait by Donald Trump | Episode 103

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So if you thought that Trump was just king of Art of the Deal, then no, you would be mistaken because he and his admin are now teaching us the art of rage bait and it is pretty damn spectacular.

So as you probably remember from last year, Trump's social media team during his campaign was absolutely incredible. I mean, it was just unstoppable, phenomenal.

Kamala and her brat Summer could barely keep up. I mean, they literally did not keep up at all with the energy that he and his team were bringing.

And you might have assumed that, you know, once it got into office, things would be serious. It would get down to brass tacks.
His team would chill out.

The campaign team would move on to something else. But no, it has only gotten more outrageous.

In fact, the White House themselves recently posted this and says, nowhere in the Constitution does it say that we can't post banger memes. Touche, message has been heard.

But the thing is, these are not just wholesome memes. These are attention-getting, rage-baiting memes, and people fall for it every single time.

But I do wonder if all of these posts and memes and antics are actually helping or hurting Trump's approval rating.

But all I know is that I personally and us here on the Brett Cooper show are having a fantastic time. Now, Sabrina Carpenter and Franklin the Turtle? Not so much.

Now before we dive into those stories, if you have not checked out Cooper Confidential at cooperconfidential.com, I urge you to do so.

We will be uploading fun behind-the-scenes farm vlogs, all of the things every single week. We already have videos up there ready for you, plus ad-free episodes and more things coming.

All right, let's just dive right into this.

Now, as you guys know, Trump is never not feuding with somebody, whether it's somebody on the left or Thomas Massey or Marjorie Taylor Greene, as of lately, but this week he and his team are currently at odds with two people, Sabrina Carpenter and the publishers of the Franklin the Turtle children's books.

Now, ironically, if these individuals, meaning the publishers and Sabrina Carpenter, had just ignored the posts that Trump's team was making, if they had not taken the bait, I would not be talking about any of this.

This would not be a story, but they unfortunately, or fortunately for us, could not help themselves.

Anyway, to dive right in, all of this started with Sabrina when the White House official account posted this video.

Now, unfortunately, we cannot play the video in its entirety and show the song to you because of YouTube copyright rules. Do not worry.

I will sing it for you. Some freaky positions.
And then she goes,

have you ever tried this one? Have you ever tried this one? Have you ever tried this one? Have you ever tried this one? And then it goes, I

know you want my home for life. My really bad singing, but basically, that is what is happening in that song.
And the song that is playing that I just sang so beautifully for you guys is called Juno.

And in it, she says that line, have you ever tried this one? Which is her talking about sexual positions.

And on her tour, this is the part of the show where she will literally show off a different sex position at every single tour stop on stage every single night. I know, very classy, great.

We can talk about that at another time. But the Trump team used that song in this video, basically being like, have you ever tried this? AKA, have you ever tried deporting illegal aliens?

Here's a different position of how we're handcuffing them, whatever it is. That was the meme.
That was what they were communicating in that song.

Obviously, it's so cringe and embarrassing when you're explaining a meme, but unfortunately, because I had to sing this, I feel like I had to explain.

Anyway, moving on, let's just say that Sabrina Carpenter did not like that. She responded on X in a comment and said, this video is evil and disgusting.

Do not ever involve me or my music to benefit your inhumane agenda. And that was posted on December 2nd, so last night.
And it now has 90 million impressions. Now, here's the thing.

A lot of people are upset with Sabrina Carpenter. They're like, Sabrina, you need to understand what Trump's doing.
I really don't care.

Like, again, I am never expecting any celebrity or pop star to agree with my opinions because I live in the real world and I understand that the majority of them are raging leftists.

Like, if you do not like Trump, I get it.

Obviously, you are going to be upset about he and his team using your work, using your art, especially when they are making light and fun of deportations, which Democrats are losing their minds about every single day.

Like, I understand that that would be upsetting for somebody like Sabrina Carpenter. But here's the thing.
This is the funny part. You kind of don't have a say.

Like, there's kind of not a lot you can do about it. And now by responding with this viral comment, you have only brought more attention to their video and to this issue.

And that, of course, did not deter the White House in the slightest. They do not care if Sabrina Carpenter is upset, and they quickly clapped back with a mic drop response.

Daily Caller posted this, and they said that somebody in the admin didn't mince words in a statement issued to TMZ. She said, here's a short and sweet message message for Sabrina Carpenter.

We won't apologize for deporting dangerous, criminal, illegal murderers, rapists, and pedophiles from our country. Anyone who would defend these sick monsters must be stupid, or is it slow?

And that is just full of callbacks to Sabrina Carpenter's music. Like, short and sweet was the name of her most recent tour.
Stupid or slow is a line from one of her songs.

Like, guys, by responding, you are just handing the Trump team, again, who we know are now meme lords. You are handing them content on a gold-plated Trump-style platter.

Now, I do want to be on record and say that, unfortunately, I think it is a tad bit concerning that this administration is better at quickly responding to angry celebrities with quippy responses than they are at handling big PR issues like Cash Patel and the Epstein files and Pam Bondi and the economy, et cetera, et cetera.

All of the things that are going on right now, maybe put some of that energy to those issues. Just saying, anyway, moving on, the point is this entire thing backfired.

Like somebody commented and said, thanks to the White House, I finally heard your music. Others were happy to point out what the DHS and and ICE is actually accomplishing, like deporting predators.

One person said, they arrested seven child sexual predators last week alone. Yeah, is that humane, Sabrina? Is that what you are so upset about? The people would like to know.

Now, obviously, those types of comments were mixed in with a lot of people sharing sentiments like this one. This girl said, hit them with that copyright strike, queen, snaps, all that kind of thing.

But here's the thing. Sabrina can't really do that.
Because the irony of this is that people use Sabrina Carpenter's music all the time on social media. They have trends.

They have dances associated with them. People are making funny edits with her songs.
And it's all because she and her team have intentionally uploaded them onto social media.

They are quote-unquote sounds on TikTok, on Instagram that everyone is allowed and encouraged to use. Like in 2025, that is how you market music.

You put it on social media and you hope that people make trends and songs out of it and that it goes mega viral. So honestly, Trump's just kind of helping Sabrina out.

Like you can't really just cherry pick and copyright somebody that you don't like for using one of your songs when you have put it on social media for everybody to be able to use.

But I do think that the bigger point of hypocrisy here is that Sabrina herself has also been known to disrespect things that other people deem sacred in the past, most notably when she used a Catholic church to film one of her music videos and completely desecrated the altar.

Now that music video sparked major outrage on social media and Sabrina's response was that she said, hey, Jesus was the carpenter too. That is literally the line that she responded with.

She was saying, kick rocks, I don't care. I'm going to film my music video where I want want to film my music video.
I'm not going to talk about it anymore. And she moved on.

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Now, back to the story, pulling off my blanket here. The point is that Sabrina Carpenter really didn't seem to care at all about that controversy.
She was like, I don't care.

I'm going to do whatever I want. And the thing is, I don't think anybody should have expected her to.

Like, again, I don't think that Sabrina Carpenter is sitting around being like, how am I going to respect Republicans? How am I going to respect Catholics? Like, that's not her M.O.

And the White House isn't going to care either. Like, sorry, not sorry.
They don't care if Sabrina Carpenter is upset about the song that they use in one of their DHS ice hype reels.

Now, these kinds of virtue signaling responses are nothing new for the rage-baiting Trump team.

In fact, the Sabrina Carpenter controversy right now, honestly, in my opinion, is small compared to the other scandal that is currently going viral on X, and that would be the fight for Franklin the Turtle's morality.

And yes, you heard that correctly.

All right, so how this all started is that four days ago, Pete Hagseth posted a meme using the children's book character Franklin the Turtle, and it was in response to the ongoing controversy and discourse about his firing on the narco-terrorists a couple of weeks ago or a month ago.

I don't even know when that happened, but we are still talking about it. But he tweeted this and he said, for your Christmas wish list.
And it was a memeified version of a Franklin the Turtle cover.

And it says, a classic Franklin story. Franklin targets narco-terrorists.
Now, this is objectionably funny and outlandish. It's so random, like most of the Trump admin posts are.

Somebody commented and said, I would absolutely buy this book for my seven-year-old son. Saying, like, my baby needs to know what America does to members of the cartel.
Just saying.

But some people online were not as happy. Somebody commented and said, have some dignity.
Another person said, this is disgusting. Remove Christian from your bio.

Okay, remove Christian from his bio because he posted a meme, because he is doing his job to protect Americans. Okay, let's all calm down.

I really don't think this is something we need to get our panties in a bunch about. But the thing is, it wasn't just random angry commenters sprinkled in under his ex-post.

The publisher of Franklin the Turtle felt the need to disavow and condemn Pete Hegseth. They posted this on X.
This is from the Kids Kid Press.

Franklin the Turtle is a beloved Canadian icon who has inspired generations of children and stands for kindness, empathy, and inclusivity.

We strongly condemn any denigrating, violent, or unauthorized use of Franklin's name or image, which directly contradicts these values. And guys, I mean, you could not write this better.

But after this, the meme just exploded more. Americans across X were like, ha ha ha, Franklin's ours now, not Canadian.
We're going to claim him. And it all just blew up from there.

I mean, if there has ever been a lesson on the Streisand effect, how if you direct attention to something, saying, no, don't look at that, people are obviously going to look at that and it's going to get even more huge and consequential.

It would be this. This should be in the textbook definition for the Streisan effect.
Because suddenly, everyone and their mother was posting Franklin the Turtle memes.

Logan Hall, for instance, responded with that condemning post and said, sorry, but Franklin belongs to us now. And it reads, Franklin grows tired of immigrants and their behavior.

I mean, yeah, I relate to Franklin, especially after yesterday's video, if you guys caught that one. Another person said, we are all Charlie Kirk, even Franklin the Turtle.
And they posted this one.

Franklin visits a college campus. And guys, it just does not stop.
This one was one of my favorites. Franklin the Turtle.
Drag queens are men. And then there's a drag queen chasing Franklin.

Let's talk about my sexuality. And Franklin's going to help.
Another one, this one is a collab with Dora the Explorer. Franklin gets a new job and he's a DHS agent.

Franklin guards the women's locker room and there is a obviously trans bear trying to get into the women's bathroom.

I mean guys I have to take something from Pretty Woman because big mistake, big, huge. Sabrina Carpenter, publishers of Franklin the Turtle, this completely backfired.

Somebody commented and said, they should not have posted that. Franklin memes are spreading like cockroaches.
Like I literally cannot keep up with how many there are.

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I mean, again, the lesson here is that if you want something to blow up out of proportion and take the internet by storm, you respond in a very dramatic, serious way.

You literally direct attention to it. You give your opponent something to mock and respond to.
It seems like common sense.

It seems like maybe by, you know, 2025 being on the internet for this long, we all should have learned that, but apparently not.

And the interesting thing is, I think that these publishers, the Sabrina Carpenter types, I don't think that they care or that they have even stopped to think about the implications because I think the goal is not actually to stop directing attention to these memes and these videos.

It's actually just to bring attention.

attention to themselves so that everybody knows how amazing of a person they are, that Sabrina Carpenter stands against ice, that Franklin the Turtle will not stand for these memes.

Like you will not stand for whatever the current thing is that the Trump administration is doing. It's virtue signaling.
That's exactly what it is. And again, this is nothing new for the Trump team.

I mean, it happened very recently with another DHS video when they use an Olivia Rodrigo song, which by the way, it's just ironic because Sabrina Carpenter and Olivia Rodrigo have actually like feuded over a boy, but now they're on the same team.

Anyway, that's just ironic to me. Probably not ironic to anybody else, but it is funny to me who is very embedded in pop culture anyway.

Back to the point, Olivia responded and said, don't ever use my songs to promote your racist, hateful propaganda. Again, basically the same line.

Now, to her credit, I will say, Olivia actually pulled down that entire song from social media. She was like, no, I'm actually not going to give you the opportunity to use this.

It was literally stripped from that White House video. If you go onto their social media and click on it, it has no sound anymore.

So at least in Olivia's situation, she actually did something about it. Instead of just grandstanding for Brownie Point, So I can at least respect that a little bit more.

If you have a difference of opinion, you don't want him to use it. You literally took it off of social media so that nobody could use your song, including Trump.

And in my mind, again, I can respect that a little bit more than just posting angry comments on X.

Anyway, moving on, this whole thing is so common now that there is actually an entire Wikipedia page that is dedicated to musicians who will not let Trump use their music.

Some examples of this are ABBA, Adele, Aerosmith, The Beatles, Beyonce, Bruce Springsteen. And a lot of these people had issues with Trump using their music at political rallies.
And I get it.

Using songs at political rallies, putting songs in advertisements, that feels like a whole different ballgame. There probably are more laws and rules around that.

I'm guessing that the musicians and their teams have a little bit more sway there, but like in TikToks, come on, it is fair game. I mean, actually, I think it is literally called fair use.

Like if you upload any sound or music to social media, sorry, but the consequences are the White House team is allowed to use it and be as wild as they want to be. And the thing is, people do like it.

These comments were from a parody video that somebody did about, you know, the White House social media team.

And somebody said, listen, say what you want, but the official White House account is tier rage bait. Another person said, I mean, I am here for the White House account.
It cracks me up.

Another person said, the White House social manager needs a race. And I completely agree.

I mean, I don't know what Gen Z injured on Capitol Hill is making those videos, but obviously they are doing a great job.

Now, I will say, even though this does create fantastic content for me, and I love watching these videos and commenting on them and reading everybody else's comments, I do wonder if this whole strategy, if the memes, if the videos are actually productive in the long run, because yes, guess people talking and literally making an entire episode about it.

You have Sabrina Carpenter responding to the videos, but I do feel like at some point this charade, if we want to call it that, could get old.

And their team, in my opinion, should be prepared for that and they should have a new strategy ready to go because people have liked it. You know, laughs have been had.

I think that it, you know, in large part helped Trump win the election.

But, you know, as the weather gets colder, as it gets darker, as winter is closing in on everyone, you know, Trump's approval rating is dropping. dropping, unfortunately, especially with young people.

And I don't know if dank memes are really going to cut it at the end. Like somebody commented and said, people want more than internet trolling.

They want to see results and stability, and we certainly don't have that. And that's just somebody's perspective.

And for a lot of people, even though they literally voted for deportations and they know that it needs to happen to save our country, they might not want to see a hype video of people getting pulled out of their homes and handcuffed in the middle of the streets to a sexy Sabrina Carpenter song.

Like, that just might not be the way to convince them that everything is going well. Like, now might not be the time for that.

Like, I personally, I need a little less Christy Noam and Cash Patel doing glamour shoots in their ice and FBI jackets. Like I want more videos showing us exactly what Trump is working on.

I want to know how he is making our economy better. I know that he's chipping away at it.
That's what you guys are saying. So I want to see.
I want to see the day in the lives.

I want to see how hard he works, how he literally barely sleeps because he's trying to make this country better.

I want you guys to dispel rumors and show young people how these larger policies that he's working on will have an impact on their daily lives and possibly most importantly, on their grocery bills.

Obviously, those videos don't have to be serious.

You can have fun with it, but I'm just assuming that possibly in the near future, based on how things are going, it might be more effective if you start to sprinkle in those types of videos amongst the other videos of the ICE agents looking like they are the cast of Mission Impossible.

You don't have to take my advice, but that's just kind of what I'm thinking.

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