Mike Diva, an American film director, special effects artist, musician and YouTuber, created this video work in 2016, 5 months before the presidential election. I believe the intended audience was young people who Mike Diva felt connected with, young people on the internet who are somewhat familiar or at least have some interest in Japanese pop culture. However, the video blew-up, and I think it was actually well-received from both pro-Trump and anti-Trump, or completely politically indifferent people.
The video is similar to the style of videos that Mike Diva made over the years, a little bit craziness, with strong nihilism vibe. I think the intention is to poke a little fun of the craziness we were facing in reality. However, I also assumed when Mike Diva made it, he did not take Trump’s possibility of actually winning the election seriously at all. Thus he was able to make such free and fun video. While the video first went viral, it was generally being celebrated, except some mainstream news channel mistaken it and took it literally as a celebration and show of affection for Trump. The creator had to go on to social media to clarify that he was in no way seriously showing love for Trump as a candidate.
Fast forward, 5 months later, when Trump actually got elected, some people went back to this video and the creator, accusing them to somewhat help boosted the popularity and coolness of Donald Trump. Through this case, we see an interesting shift of public and counterpublic. Before the election result, the public seems to be people who too find the video funny as Trump seemed to be no real danger at all. The counterpublic at that time might be the people who actually loved Trump already, and did not enjoy this sort of goofy and stying of making fun of him. After the election result came out, some of the people in the original public group might become the counterpublic, as they now suspect a level of association that creation like this might have undermined or helped Trump to gain votes from younger generation. As to me, while I have had a sense of odd feeling whenever watching it, my love for this art piece has never change.