Today’s top story isn’t climate change, or Islamic State air strikes, or even the bendy iPhone 6. No, it’s our latte-sipping traitor president.
How could President Obama have known, as he stepped off of Marine One in New York City on Tuesday afternoon, that his salute to the Marines at the base of the helicopter’s ramp would launch a thousand conservative rants?
As he descended the steps, the commander-in-chief, wearing black sunglasses and holding a drink in his right hand, used the aforementioned right hand to snap off a quick salute to the Marines. The White House evidently felt comfortable enough about the gesture to post a video of it on Instagram.
Almost immediately, a meme was born in the conservative Twitterspheres: Our disgraceful pseudo-president’s “latte salute.”
See The Incredible Disrepect As Obama Sneers And Salutes With Coffee Cup In Hand https://t.co/ouQAete0Px
— Faith Evans (@Faith_iii) September 23, 2014
“American” president. RT @charliespiering: Obama doesn’t drink coffee. It’s almost always tea.
— Jayel Aheram (@aheram) September 23, 2014
Our President saluted the Marines with a LATTE in his hand. https://t.co/j2Zc9caZtl pic.twitter.com/MgR9I7POl9
— College Republicans (@CRNC) September 23, 2014
I bet Obama had pumpkin spice coffee in the cup he saluted with.
— Matthew (@Matthops82) September 23, 2014
See, the problem is a king doesn’t have to salute. Darn being just a president. https://t.co/f58Q7QiPN9
— Teresa Wendt (@projectmat) September 23, 2014
Obama salutes Marine with a latte in his hand. Nice. Latte-sipping limousine liberal suddenly comes to mind. https://t.co/mdTsDWwyAR
— Andrew Clark (@AndrewHClark) September 23, 2014
At least he didn’t hand one of the Marines his latte. https://t.co/b5dJ0qy75W
— Daniel Foster (@DanFosterType) September 23, 2014
So DISRESPECTFUL! RT @CRNC: Our President saluted the Marines with a LATTE in his hand. https://t.co/6AoYhoiPey pic.twitter.com/FdNAkUiUcF
— Jovan (@Jovan333) September 23, 2014
He is shameful as a commander in chief https://t.co/RKiTEjpR7V
— dave howell (@wesellsa) September 23, 2014
Best part is its a styrofoam cup…not very “Green” of him… https://t.co/s66R11AgRN
— John Murtagh (@johnmurtagh) September 23, 2014
Interestingly, the U.S. military’s online manual does say, in its section on the salute, that “it is improper to salute with any object in the right hand or with a cigarette, cigar, or pipe in the mouth.” As a matter of protocol, however, this only applies to members of the armed forces. Politicians, for better or worse, are not subject to these restrictions on saluting.
As usual, the best tweets on this subject are replies to the conservative news website of record, the Daily Caller.
@DailyCaller well that narcissistic sleazebag can’t possibly be bothered by saluting correctly, REMEMBER that pig hates the military!
— Mark St. John (@SRT8JeepDriver) September 23, 2014
@DailyCaller @Just_a_Texan Hopefully the armed forces will be as disgusted as we are with Obama and support the citizens when the time comes
— Sherm (@ProudAmerican15) September 23, 2014
@Pamelajn922 @DailyCaller yep. That’s him. Just Barry being Barry.
— Terry Bowen (@TBowen5150) September 23, 2014
@DailyCaller DOTUS…DINK OF THE UNITED STATES
— Ken Provence (@Baguio_kano) September 23, 2014
And the pièce de résistance…
@DailyCaller @BarrieNJ He has no reason to salute back. He hates the military or he wouldn’t be sending 3k to their Ebola death
— The Old Guy (@LeeMarkle2) September 23, 2014
Photo via secdef/Flickr (CC BY 2.0)
