Getty Trump is once again trending on Twitter for a comment he made in Florida regarding shoppers needing an ID to buy groceries.
Donald Trump is once again trending on Twitter after telling a crowd in Florida that buying groceries requires an identification card. And, as usual, Twitter never fails to jump on anything the president says and turn it into a flood of hilarious memes.
President Trump made the comment while pushing for voter ID laws at a rally in Tampa to support Ron DeSantis (R-Fla.) in the state’s gubernatorial race. The president began talking about voter fraud, and claimed Democrats were attempting to give undocumented immigrants the right to vote.
“Which is why the time has come for voter ID, like everything else,” Trump told the crowd. “You know, if you go out and you want to buy groceries, you need a picture on a card. You need ID.”
President Trump, at his rally in Tampa, is pushing for voter ID laws and said you need to show an ID to buy groceries.
(You don’t need ID to buy groceries.)
To clarify, American citizens do not need a picture ID to buy basic groceries, cleaning products, or most toiletries. There are some federal and state regulations that prohibit the sale of alcohol or certain over-the-counter medications without identification, but that does not extend to grocery shopping.
President Trump has been pushing for stricter voter ID laws in the United States for some time now. However, according to the Huffington Post, “there is no evidence that noncitizen voting is a widespread problem, despite Trump’s claims. Pressed in court earlier this year to offer evidence of widespread noncitizen voting in Kansas, experts whose work Trump has relied on were only able to point to a handful of cases.”
Without fail, Twitter had a field day after the comment started making headlines. Some users claimed that the president was “out of touch” with reality, and wondered when he last bought his own groceries.
Brian Krassenstein wrote: “This is why billionaire idiots shouldn’t be President. We need someone to represent us who has at least has bought their own groceries in the last 3 decades.”
Another Twitter user questioned if President Trump even knew how much a loaf of bread cost.
@krassenstein You need an ID to buy groceries? How out of touch can you be? How much does a loaf of bread cost Trump? Do you know?
Trump says you need photo ID to buy groceries in the U.S. That’s more out of touch than George H.W. Bush’s grocery scanner.
The rest of Twitter did what they do best, and churned out memes poking fun of the comment. Some users even started the hashtag #GroceryGate in addition to #groceryID.
When Trump said you need ID to buy groceries. #TrumpTampa
Several users sarcastically adopted President Trump’s tweeting persona. Aqua Spirillium wrote: “If there wasn’t so much grocery fraud we wouldn’t need grocery ID cards. SAD!”
“If you don’t have #groceryid laws, anyone could buy groceries,” Pay Abernathey wrote. “Ppl [sic] might buy groceries for someone else.”
Sean Ketchem wrote: “American needs strong #groceryID laws to stop the wave of fraudulent milk purchases. Rigged system!”
America needs strong #groceryID laws now to stop the wave of fraudulent milk purchases. Rigged system!
Others had fun with it and came up with the Department of Grocery Buying to help buyers renew their grocery ID’s and encouraged people to “vote blue to change the grocery ID laws.”
Wow, if we didn’t have that antiquated law where you had to have an ID to buy groceries, everyone could buy groceries. Vote Blue to change the #groceryID law!
Some users came to the president’s defense, stating that Twitter was blowing his comment out of proportion and claiming that you really do need an ID when paying with a check or with a credit card.
“Hey, all you dense people, you definitely do need an ID to Buy Groceries if you use a check,” Bargain Bin Benny wrote. “And also when you use a credit/debit card without a proper signature. But, hey, you love blowing things out of proportion, so have fun with you #groceryID hashtag anyway.”