The “I have concepts of a plan” meme refers to a comment made by former President Donald Trump during his first debate against Vice President Kamala Harris on September 10, 2024. His response addressed a question made by moderators about how he would replace the Affordable Care Act.
The day after the debate, social media users started referencing the quote in a new meme favored by those who don’t like to plan, aren’t good at planning, or otherwise do not have a plan for anything in their lives.
Trump’s dream of replacing the Affordable Care Act
Former President Donald Trump has been promising to replace the Affordable Care Act (ACA) passed under former President Barack Obama since his 2016 campaign. Republicans have been vowing to get rid of “Obamacare” since it came into being, but have repeatedly failed.
Part of their failure is because they just can’t seem to come up with anything adequate to replace the bill. During the Trump presidency, they came close to repealing the ACA with the so-called “Health Care Freedom Act,” but a dramatic “nay” from the late Senator John McCain dashed their hopes and dreams.
Why did Trump say “‘I have concepts of a plan”?
Right-wing bills designed to replace the ACA have been frighteningly short and contained many unpopular provisions—kind of like what you would expect in a concept of a plan rather than an actual plan. This issue appears to have persisted with Trump, as was revealed by a simple query from the debate moderators on September 10.
When asked about his plan to provide affordable healthcare to U.S. citizens, his answers were not reassuring.
“I have concepts of a plan,” he said. “I’m not president right now, but if we come up with something… I would only change it if we come up with something that’s better and less expensive and there are concepts and options. We have to do that. And you’ll be hearing about it in the not-too-distant future.”
‘I have concepts of a plan’ meme
The lack of confidence and forethought coming from someone who wants to be President of the United States might have been frightening in the past, but in the year 2024, all we can do is laugh—and make memes.
People on sites like Reddit and Twitter took up the task in record time, making memes about how you might say this to teachers or bosses who ask how your project is coming along. Others have used it to reference a common joke in popular media wherein messy protagonists are taking on a difficult task and need to convince others that they have a plan.
But they don’t have a plan, and while everything usually turns out alright in the movies, this is real life, and we’re talking about people’s ability to go to the doctor and get medicine and generally stay alive.
Meme examples
Related memes:
- 2024 Trump vs. Biden presidential debate memes
- Trump’s ‘Transgender Operations on Illegal Aliens’ phrase becomes a meme
- Joe Biden said ‘I’m doing 9/11’ and it instantly became a meme
- ‘ALF eating a cat sandwich’ memes surge following Trump’s ‘eating pets’ claim
- ‘It’s actually so over:’ The face that became the Joe Biden debate meme
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