Reddit user who wrote about stabbing Muslims claims credit for mock video showing Trump beating up CNN

The user whose screen name is an unprintable corruption of “Han Solo” spent about a year on Reddit before attaining stardom, courtesy of a share from US President Donald Trump.

Some posts were unpopular.

“That cat would be in a blender if it did that to me,” for instance. Or recollections of visits to Paris armed with “punch blades,” in case a Muslim needed to be stabbed in the neck.

The user found more success posting on r/The_Donald, an extremely popular Reddit subgroup specialising in the idolisation of Trump and the denigration of his imagined enemies - often through the most offensive means possible.

Thus Han-------Solo’s offering on Wednesday: A GIF of Trump pummelling Vince McMahon at a long-ago WrestleMania, with a CNN logo superimposed over McMahon’s face.

“Trump takes down fake news,” it was titled.

It did fine. A few thousand votes. Nothing special by r/The_Donald’s standard.

Until 9:21 a.m. Sunday, that is, when Trump tweeted a tweaked version of the clip, and made history on r/The_Donald.

Han-------Solo: “Holy -! I wake up and have my morning coffee and who retweets my --post by the MAGA EMPORER himself!!! I am honoured!!!”

Joy echoed across r/The_Donald, which a day earlier had been more interested in conspiracy theories about the Clintons killing people and stick-figure drawings of Californians embarrassing themselves.

“TWEETED by the PRESIDENT,” one of many admirers wrote. “Now it’s confirmed that Trump sees our memes.”

“We all wish for such validation.”

“You are now a legend!!”

Wondered SnugMeatSocks: “Did you ever think one of your memes would go into the Library of Congress?”

Which isn’t far from the truth. The National Archives has advised the White House to save all the president’s tweets - from the indecipherable “covfefe” to “she was bleeding badly from a facelift”, which was in the running as one of Trump’s most offensive tweets before his pummelling video drew condemnation from lawmakers and journalists on Sunday.

As is often the case on the Internet, the meme’s repercussions are easier to pin down than its origins.

In a tweet responding a tweet from AltHomelandSec that said “while we fight to resotre our democracy from foreign meddling, our president is tweeting nonsense.”

The Loyal Opposition (@opposition) tweeted:

“The source of the meme he tweeted. Pretty sick stuff. https://t.co/tXXBDKxJcn”

And the user took credit for it, while noting that someone added sound and made other alterations to the version Trump tweeted.

That said, a similar clip with an identical title - but no CNN logo - appeared weeks earlier on an obscure Twitter feed.

But it almost doesn’t matter where the meme really came from. On r/The_Donald, where dubious claims have long mixed with reality, Trump’s endorsement of a homegrown GIF is now accepted as canon and lore.

“You know he saw it, chuckled, and knew he could control the media narrative for days by hitting the ‘post’ button,” wrote American_Crusader.

“So he did.”

“If we could give him that, imagine what else we could provide the God-Emperor in Chief with?” a moderator for the group added.