--- title: Donald Trump Throwing Paper Towels Becomes a Viral Meme description: President Donald Trump throwing paper towels to hurricane victims in Puerto Rico inspires reactions canonical: https://time.com/4968074/donald-trump-paper-towels-puerto-rico/ author: Ashley Hoffman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-10-03T21:18:25.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:47:45.023Z og:title: The Internet Is Losing It Over Trump's Paper Towel Throwing og:description: "I play the best sports." og:url: https://time.com/4968074/donald-trump-paper-towels-puerto-rico/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdc683b2e75f64f9e/6988e0577cdbacc5a8d5a503/trump-puerto-rico-hurricane-maria-09.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2405 og:image:height: 1353 og:image:alt: Trump, San Juan, Puerto Rico - 03 Oct 2017 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: The Internet Is Losing It Over Trump's Paper Towel Throwing twitter:description: "I play the best sports." twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdc683b2e75f64f9e/6988e0577cdbacc5a8d5a503/trump-puerto-rico-hurricane-maria-09.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Donald Trump Threw Paper Towels to Hurricane Victims in Puerto Rico. 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The Brief is available free at time.com/newsletters, where readers can select it along with any of TIME's other six newsletters. There is no subscription required to receive it. #### Is The Brief free? Yes. The Brief is a free daily email newsletter from TIME. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes The Brief? The Brief is led by editor Richard Hall and draws on reporting from TIME's newsroom. Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically. by [Ashley Hoffman](https://time.com/author/ashley-hoffman/) ## Ashley Hoffman Oct 3, 2017 9:18 PM UTC  President Donald Trump greets participants during a briefing on hurricane recovery efforts with first responders at Luis Muniz Air National Guard Base, in San Juan, Puerto Rico Trump, on Oct 3, 2017. President Donald Trump greets participants during a briefing on hurricane recovery efforts with first responders at Luis Muniz Air National Guard Base, in San Juan, Puerto Rico Trump, on Oct 3, 2017.AP/Shutterstock by [Ashley Hoffman](https://time.com/author/ashley-hoffman/) ## Ashley Hoffman Oct 3, 2017 9:18 PM UTC [President Donald Trump’s](http://time.com/4967645/donald-trump-puerto-rico-hurricane-katrina/) latest viral move is paper towel throwing. Tuesday marked President Trump’s first visit to Puerto Rico, which was ravaged by [Hurricane Maria](http://time.com/4967645/donald-trump-puerto-rico-hurricane-katrina/) two weeks ago. During a stop at Calvary Chapel in San Juan, he came face to face with some of the U.S. territory’s residents in need of relief. Perhaps drawing on his reality TV experience, he launched several rolls of paper towels into a crowd of residents, some of whom caught the supplies, some who didn’t. People were quick to capture the action shots, and it wasn’t long before it was a meme. A news editor couldn’t wait for the meme machine to go to work. > [](https://twitter.com/Kyle%5FFeldscher/status/915278425929273344) Some felt it was a distateful way to distribute supplies. > [](https://twitter.com/calebecarma/status/915279319932571649) NBA ballers were name-checked. > [](https://twitter.com/TomNamako/status/915276394246082560) > [](https://twitter.com/SOMEXlCAN/status/915287840568754176) > [](https://twitter.com/calebecarma/status/915281461435092992) Others found the scene quite dark. > [](https://twitter.com/reptarbarred/status/915291384579489792) > [](https://twitter.com/VeraMBergen/status/915280024244183040) Even Samantha Bee’s social media team weighed in. > [](https://twitter.com/FullFrontalSamB/status/915297409839792128) As of Tuesday afternoon, the Photoshop battle was just getting started, with one [user riffing](https://i.imgur.com/9bPNqij) on his use of superlatives, captioning this edit job of Trump shooting a basketball at a football goal with the line “I play the best sports.” Another chose a certain iconic [Disney moment](https://imgur.com/DpbRm7f). The President has faced [criticism](http://time.com/4960647/us-turned-its-back-on-puerto-rico/) from Ted Cruz and others for his response to Puerto Rico. The President of Oxfam America, an international organization dedicated to alleviating poverty, announced its involvement in the relief effort, saying the U.S. government was too slow to respond. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4968074/donald-trump-paper-towels-puerto-rico/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4968074/donald-trump-paper-towels-puerto-rico/"},"headline":"Donald Trump Threw Paper Towels to Hurricane Victims in Puerto Rico. 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