It sounds like the tagline of a human resources email or a dispatch from your local high school principal, but President Donald Trump‘s “thank you for your attention to this matter” has become his latest viral catchphrase.
After popularizing “build the wall,” “Make America Great Again,” and, of course, “Liberation Day,” Trump has affixed “thank you for your attention to this matter” to an increasing number of social media posts throughout his second term, with fans and detractors alike taking notice and peppering it into their own conversations.
While Trump’s opponents may see it as yet another sign of his incompetence and unworthiness for high office, his supporters see it as a central part of his appeal.
“He does things that nobody else in Washington does, and a lot of traditionalists and media faint when he does it,” said former White House press secretary Ari Fleischer, who used the phrase himself just days ago. “But one of the secrets to Trump’s success is that he is proudly anti-Washington and anti-politician, so it doesn’t surprise me that he authentically sounds different than everybody else.”
Trump has used “thank you for your attention” off and on for years but with increasing frequency as his second term goes on.
The meme really started to take off after Trump affixed it to posts about last weekend’s Iran strikes, one of which ended with, “Perhaps Iran can now proceed to Peace and Harmony in the Region, and I will enthusiastically encourage Israel to do the same. Thank you for your attention to this matter!”
The pairing of that all-important message with the catchphrase kicker spawned many memes.
While a president’s memeification ability may sound trivial on the surface, Fleischer and other figures on the political Right say it’s a powerful testament to Trump’s branding abilities, messaging power, and authenticity.
“It’s quirky enough. It’s different enough. It kind of comes with an exclamation point. Who communicates like that?” Fleischer added. “It’s clever, it’s odd, it’s different. It’s Trump.”
For Democratic strategists like Sasha Tirador, Trump’s social media posts can be obnoxious even if the appeal to his voters is obvious.
“When he writes, it’s not so I can understand it, it’s so his base can understand it,” said Tirador, who is based in South Florida. “We can go back and forth on the grammar, but his base can identify with that, because sometimes they don’t even know there’s a grammatical error in there.”
She said Democrats can sometimes spin Trump’s errors into a messaging win on their own, such as in the “covfefe” dustup of 2017. But Tirador also acknowledged that such incidents are always a win for Trump in one respect.
“I think that he wins in the sense that it’s just more Trump,” Tirador said. “Nowadays, it’s impossible to have a conversation about anything other than Trump if you talk about politics.”
Another Democratic strategist, Brad Bannon, suggests his party should ignore Trump’s catchphrases and focus on his failure to fulfill campaign promises, such as lowering prices on his first day in office.
“Catchy phrases are for successful sitcoms, not for the president of the United States,” he said.
But Trump seems happy for now to keep churning them out. As a catchphrase, “thank you for your attention” stands out among Trump’s favorites, with the others tending to boost his policy views in a direct way. “Make America Great Again,” for example, doubled as a campaign pledge, while “Liberation Day” was a way to sell his aggressive tariff scheme as a break from trade norms.
Thanking people for their attention is comparatively neutral, other than to acknowledge that Trump enjoys a lot of the public’s attention at any given moment.
It’s not exactly a new slogan, either, even for Trump. He’s been using it since at least 2019, when it was affixed to a Twitter post about hiking tariffs on China. Trump is no longer active on that platform, but he brought it with him to Truth Social as well, for example, in a February 2023 joke about Arizona’s vote counting.
“Because the Super Bowl was held in Arizona, the results of the game, after a lengthy analysis currently taking place of the ‘holding’ call, will not be known for at least 4 weeks,” he wrote. “Thank you for your attention to this matter, and I hope that you thoroughly enjoyed the game!”
Trump lost Arizona in 2020 and in early 2023 was still seen as vulnerable to a challenge from Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) as he sought the Republican presidential nomination for a third straight time. But as his campaign gained strength, so did the slogan.
In March 2024, with the GOP nomination secured, Trump added it to a debate challenge leveled at then-President Joe Biden.
“I am calling for Debates, ANYTIME, ANYWHERE, ANYPLACE! The Debates can be run by the Corrupt DNC, or their Subsidiary, the Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD),” Trump wrote. “I look forward to receiving a response. Thank you for your attention to this matter!”
Biden took him up on the offer, even adding, “Make my day, pal,” and the debate took place on June 27, 2024. But instead of the expected showdown between two political heavyweights, Biden’s weak performance turned the political world on its head, leading to his ouster from the race just a few weeks later.
Biden was swiftly replaced with then-Vice President Kamala Harris on the Democratic ticket, but that wasn’t enough to keep Trump from retaking the White House.
“Thank you for your attention” gained further steam after Trump won the election, and he began a habit of attaching it to the end of policy-related posts.
“Until such time as they stop, we will be charging China an additional 10% Tariff, above any additional Tariffs, on all of their many products coming into the United States of America,” Trump posted on Nov. 25, just days after winning a second term. “Thank you for your attention to this matter.”
In February, Trump announced the termination of “concessions” he said Biden gave to Venezuela, ending with, “I am therefore ordering that the ineffective and unmet Biden ‘Concession Agreement’ be terminated as of the March 1st option to renew. Thank you for your attention to this matter!”
In April, Trump hiked tariffs on China again, adding, “Additionally, all talks with China concerning their requested meetings with us will be terminated! Negotiations with other countries, which have also requested meetings, will begin taking place immediately. Thank you for your attention to this matter!”
Things really picked up in May and June, when Trump used the phrase at least 28 times on Truth Social.
On May 13, regarding his hugely controversial decision to accept a $400 million Air Force One replacement from Qatar, Trump wrote, “This big savings will be spent, instead, to MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN! Only a FOOL would not accept this gift on behalf of our Country. Thank you for your attention to this matter!”
And on June 8, regarding the Los Angeles illegal immigration protests, Trump warned, “Order will be restored, the Illegals will be expelled, and Los Angeles will be set free. Thank you for your attention to this matter!”
While Trump infuses an air of spontaneity into his communications, there is a method to the madness, DePauw University communications professor Jeffrey McCall argued.
“Trump has proven over the years that he can rhetorically characterize situations and issues in a manner that sticks,” McCall said. “There has to be a strategic component to Trump’s ability to boil things down and make people remember these phrases. This ability can’t just be chalked up to Trump being lucky to utter some random comments that suddenly get traction.”
McCall also attributes Trump’s success in this area to authenticity, even when it’s the kind that would drive 10th-grade English teachers nuts with its haphazard capitalization and punctuation.
“It is rather remarkable that these catchphrases don’t come off as generated by consultants, fancy speech writers, or focus groups,” McCall added. “Trump’s opponents, of course, consider his pronouncements to be unpolished, undiplomatic, and clumsy. But it is hard to ignore that Trump’s rhetoric, which can be brawling and sometimes indecorous, is genuine and unique to him.”
One sign of success is that those opponents sometimes use the phrase themselves, including Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA), arguably Trump’s biggest foil since he regained the White House in January.
But plenty of supportive and completely nonpolitical posts use it as well.
Finally finished! Thank you for your attention to this matter.
pic.twitter.com/SZq2VbBixD
— Brandon (@BnLminis) June 24, 2025
For a Republican Party that usually feels it is at a disadvantage in cultural power and influence, Trump’s ability to move the conversation is refreshing, even if it sometimes comes in the form of silly catchphrases.
“We will never have Hollywood, and we will never have traditional media,” Ohio-based GOP strategist Jai Chabria said. “But that’s not the way regular people consume and make their decisions anymore.”
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Chabria sees Trump’s meme abilities as indicative of his overall media mastery, which dates back more than 40 years, and says it’s one of the reasons for his staying power.
“He mastered broadcast television. He mastered cable news. He mastered long-form podcasts, and he’s also mastered social media,” Chabria said. “He knows how people, how regular people, consume media on different platforms, he adapts to them, and people remember him.”
