Photo of Donald Trump stealing a peek at Melania's ballot goes viral
Republican nominee Donald Trump visited a polling place in midtown Manhattan with his wife Melania and daughter Ivanka to cast their votes in the United States presidential election Tuesday morning. In a moment caught on camera, Donald Trump stole a few peeks at his wife’s ballot — and now the internet is stealing a few laughs at his expense.
WATCH LIVE: Donald and Melania Trump cast their ballots in New York City on #ElectionDay https://t.co/haPF1PBbjb pic.twitter.com/cVLhoNarja
— CBS News (@CBSNews) November 8, 2016
The glances were so quick you could almost miss them, right? Well, unfortunately for Trump, social media misses nothing.
See the problem with @realDonaldTrump copying Melania’s ballot is that Melania copied hers from Michelle Obama. pic.twitter.com/b95l3oTo6L
— Jamison Foser (@jamisonfoser) November 8, 2016
trump panicked and had to copy melania's ballot. now both are voting for hillary pic.twitter.com/fiFO5tSrMh
— daddy's lil psycho (@tannermuro) November 8, 2016
when you didn't open your textbook once the entire semester but you know this test is the only thing that counts toward your final grade pic.twitter.com/LrSzepa5Fu
— BuzzFeed (@BuzzFeed) November 8, 2016
Melania didn't even vote; she just scrawled "Help Me" on her ballot.
— pourmecoffee (@pourmecoffee) November 8, 2016
TRUMP: Who am I supposed to vote for?
— Daniel Lin (@DLin71) November 8, 2016
MELANIA: Harambe
T: No, really
M: SMOD
T: C’mon
M: Write in “Ima Clown”
T: How do you spell that? pic.twitter.com/EZtFIhYMoc
Trump wondering who Melania is voting for: https://t.co/O5hh8yqHl5
— Michael Moore (@MMFlint) November 8, 2016
As liberal documentary filmmaker Michael Moore gleefully points out in the tweet above, the implication of the now viral screen-grab is that Donald Trump wasn’t entirely sure who his wife was voting for, so he needed to check. Some social media users are also cracking themselves up over the idea that Trump just copied his answers from Melania’s ballot, who in turn copied her answers from Michelle Obama. It seems poor Melania will never be able to live down that RNC speech debacle... at least, not on Twitter.
On a serious note, however, one user pointed out that the image appears to capture Donald Trump in violation of U.S. election laws.
When you vote on #ElectionDay, remember election laws require us to respect the privacy of others: https://t.co/dwXtM3avWB pic.twitter.com/0lXFaWGztU
— Alex Howard (@digiphile) November 8, 2016
In fact, the very concept of a secret ballot is meant to ensure each voter’s right to make his or her choices anonymously and protect against voter intimidation or bullying, which might otherwise occur.
Perhaps ironically, those are the same issues that, just last week, Melania Trump promised to focus on as first lady.