Dawn Images

US President Joe Biden dropped out of the US presidential election after spending more than three weeks resisting calls to step down, at one point insisting that only the “Lord Almighty” could convince him to back out.

Well, it turns out peer pressure works because the president took to X (formerly Twitter) to state, “While it has been my intention to seek reelection, I believe it is in the best interest of my party and the country for me to stand down and focus solely on fulfilling my duties as president for the remainder of my term”. The announcement comes while he recovers from Covid at his beach house in Delaware.

The internet, of course, reacted in the way it knows best — with memes aplenty.

‘Great call from the haters’

An X user hilariously used truck art to express what Biden could be feeling — ‘I didn’t do it because I liked it, but because people forced me to it’. We must say, Pakistani meme makers remain elite.

‘I said WHAT?’

This user highlighted just how much Biden didn’t want to drop out of the race, and would probably wake up from his nap — the US president is currently 81 years old AND has Covid, so the assumption that he is napping doesn’t seem inapt — to find out someone dropped out of the race for him.

Another person mentioned how difficult the Advanced Placement (AP) government exams will be for American students in the future. Not going to lie, this also makes us pity the Pakistani students who will have to study all of the local political turmoil of 2023 and 2024.

Texts to your ex

Perhaps the funniest reaction is people using this event to draft texts to their exes about how they “dropped out on the race” for their hearts. What better way to reconnect than this?! Note to our readers: We do not recommend that you text your ex because Biden dropped out — it’s a terrible idea.

Swifties were, unsurprisingly, thinking of Taylor Swift as globe-changing political events occurred. An X user reminded us all that last summer Swift and her former partner Joe Alwyn called it quits. “Not two Joever summers in a row.”

‘Butcher of Gaza’

On a more serious note, netizens also highlighted Biden’s crimes in Gaza and how he would forever be remembered as “the butcher of Gaza”.

During Biden’s tenure, Israel amped up its aggression on the Gaza Strip following the Hamas attacks on October 7, 2023. Today marks the 290th day of Israel’s invasion of Gaza, with more than 38,000 Palestinians dead, however, the Biden regime remains steadfast in its support for Israel.

Cornel West, one of the US’s pre-eminent philosophers and justice activists, said Joe Biden was “not a great or excellent president”.

“He was first and foremost an enabler of genocide in Gaza, with over 15,000 Palestinian children murdered,” he wrote on social media.

Pro-Palestine X users believed the same, with Palestinian journalist and poet Plestia Alaqad tweeting “Thank u, next”, referring to Ariana Grande’s 2019 song.

Others pointed out that Israel would “never have been able to raze Gaza to the ground without him”.

Internet personality Tyler Oakley reshared Biden’s announcement, with the funniest and most relevant text, “I ain’t reading all that. Free Palestine”. Perhaps the best way to respond to anyone still supporting Israel.

However, netizens were cognisant that regardless of who comes into office, the US would uphold their unbreakable bond with Israel and continue to support them. Even if current Vice President Kamala Harris became the first woman president of America — Biden has endorsed her as the Democratic nominee — the Middle East would still face turmoil.

Hope sprung eternal as people also pointed out that Gaza “will live long after him”.

As always, X users remained snarky — and funny, if we do say so ourselves — with one user hoping Biden gave Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Covid.

As the balance of the political world hangs precariously, with no lesser of two evils but only evils, we hope whatever happens in the future is in the best interest of all of humanity.