Daily Meme Team: Pro-Trump group behind video referencing “United Empire”

A video posted to Donald Trump’s Truth Social account this week included references to creating a “united empire,” angering Democrats and the Trump campaign later removed the post.

The campaign claims the post came from a “random account” and that the staff member who posted it was unaware of the word, but it actually came from a group of influential online trolls known as the Daily Meme Team.

They are a dedicated, largely anonymous group that has produced a huge number of pro-Trump videos and images, many of which are crude, offensive, satirical or conspiratorial, but also have more traditional and religious themes.

The Daily Memes Team prides itself on its ties to the Trump campaign, giving it an unusual status among the many accounts and loose organizations dedicated to the online battle.

The Biden campaign has emphasized the importance of the digital warfare in this election campaign, recently placing a recruitment ad for a “Content and Meme Page Partnership Manager.”

A 30-second video posted to Trump’s Truth Social account on Monday outlined his vision for the United States if he were to return to the White House.

The video featured a mock newspaper headline depicting a hypothetical victory for Trump.

One refers to the “creation of a united Reich,” a term now often associated with Nazi Germany. The sentence appears to be based on a historical reference to Germany being united into a single Reich, or Empire, in 1871.

The video generated widespread coverage and controversy and was later removed, but it was just one of dozens of videos and images from the Daily Meme Team shared by Trump’s official account in recent months.

Among the videos and memes created by the team of about two dozen accounts are crude and insulting parodies of music videos and other content.

Some of the videos portray Nikki Haley as a prostitute, Ron DeSantis’ wife Casey DeSantis as a porn actress and President Biden as a pedophile, while others allude to conspiracy theories about the “deep state,” federal agents and vaccines.

Trump’s account prefers to repost less offensive content produced by the team, such as the “God Made Trump” video that became a hot topic in MAGA (Make America Great Again) circles ahead of the Iowa caucuses that kicked off the Republican nomination race.

The video, an adaptation of an old speech by the radio host that portrays Trump as hard-working, selfless and sent directly from heaven on a divine mission, has enthralled many Trump supporters but also infuriated some Christians.

Other videos from the Daily Meme Team, such as a compilation of Joe Biden stumbling, have been played at Trump campaign events.

Most of the collective’s members operate under pseudonyms, but the group’s founder and namesake, Brenden Dilley, posts and hosts podcasts under his own name.

Dilley describes himself as an entrepreneur, life coach, self-help author and fitness expert.

Mr. Dilley, who frequently uses expletive-laced tirades against Trump’s opponents and has used homophobic slurs on his online show and podcast, responded to a request for comment with a barrage of insults and expletives.

In 2018, he ran for Congress in Arizona, finishing 11th in the Republican primary with just over 1% of the vote.

There’s no indication that the Dirie Meme Team is receiving funding from the Trump campaign. In fact, money is flowing in the opposite direction: Federal Election Commission records show that Dirie and his company have donated at least $7,000 to the Trump campaign, a Trump-related political action committee and the Republican National Committee.

Dilley and his meme makers have also bragged about their involvement in the campaign, saying they received Trump-themed gifts, press passes to rallies and invitations to Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort.

The New York Times reported in December that Trump had suggested an edit to one of the Daily Meme Team’s videos, which was gladly adopted.

After the “Reich” video hit the media, Dilley addressed some things on his podcast that he “cannot talk about publicly.”

“I can’t say anything,” he said. “The media is slandering me.”

The Trump campaign has been contacted for comment.

Dilley’s group professes absolute loyalty to Trump, and some of its crudest and most scathing attacks are aimed at his Republican rivals.

Earlier this week, he posted on X: “I have 5 more months to do my part to help elect President Trump, then I will get back to running my other businesses.”

Kayla Gogarty, research director at Media Matters for America, a left-leaning group that monitors conservative and far-right media outlets, said Trump began sharing Daily Meme Team videos around the time of the 2022 midterm elections.

“His comments are particularly shocking given his strong ties to the United States. [Trump] “We have a great working relationship with the campaign and with the mainstream Republican Party,” she said.

The group’s aggressive approach has earned it praise from some of Trump’s biggest supporters.

“Thank you Dilly Meme Team!” Trump supporter Kali Lake shouted after one of the team members created a highlight video for the Arizona Republican Senate candidate.

Another conservative influencer tweeted about the Biden campaign’s recruitment ad: “They won’t be able to fight the Dilly Meme Team because their warlord Brenden doesn’t play games!”

But other Trump supporters believe the furor over the “United Empire” video shows the errors and shortcomings of scorched earth memetic warfare.

“They’re there to attack, to insult, to smear, and it’s all ad hominem,” said John Cardillo, a former NYPD officer and now a conservative commentator. “None of their attacks are policy-based.”

Cardillo is a longtime Trump fan and still supports the former president, but he backed DeSantis in the early stages of the Republican primary.

He said the group made a big mistake by attacking conservatives who dare to voice different opinions, and that their tactics are backfiring. He argued that the controversy over Reich’s video has been exaggerated but is a blessing for Democrats, and that the Dilly Meme Team is doing “incredible harm” to the Trump campaign.

“The backlash has been huge,” he said. “I don’t think the Biden campaign has ever said anything positive, but this ad has been extremely effective.”