Jeb Bush’s presidential campaign has been a roller coaster of absurdity, but the recent revelation that JebBush.com redirects to Donald Trump’s website may have pushed the Florida governor and sad-sack presidential candidate past the tipping point.
There was speculation for quite some time that Jeb would run for the 2016 Republican nomination, and the campaign was formally announced in June of 2015. The playful logo and simple catchphrase – “Jeb!” – was rife for Internet mockery from the beginning, in large part due to the Internet mockery that hounded his brother, President George W. Bush.
Things took a turn for the inexplicable in September 2015, however, when Jeb! tweeted a photo of W. standing on top of the World Trade Center rubble with the caption “When it comes to my brother, there’s one thing I know for sure. He kept us safe.” Needless to say, this turned some heads.
Jeb! carried on into the primaries and hit the campaign trail hard in early 2016, but strike two came after weak performances in the Iowa caucus and in talking with a crowd in New Hampshire. He gave what The New York Times referred to as a “fiery riff” that was ultimately met with dead silence. He then sighed and uttered two words that have come to define his campaign: “Please clap.”
And while those incidents were not good for Jeb!’s image, today seems to have been the final straw for his crumbling mental well-being. Jeb! allowed some merry pranksters to hijack his site and redirect it, so when you visit, JebBush.com, you’re taken to Donald Trump’s website instead. Oof.
The fallout? A tweet from Jeb! that shows a photo of a handgun with his name on it and a caption that simply reads “America.”
It may be safe to say that Jeb! is going through some emotional times, and perhaps we should just hope that he gets the support he needs from his loved ones. He’s sure not going to get it from the Internet.