Depressed penguins have become Trump and RFK Jr.’s newest fascination, and it’s even dumber than it sounds

Trump, RFK Jr., and several other government agencies, including Trump’s Department of Homeland Security, and the British far-right Reform Party have shared social media posts recently featuring a penguin, with, in Trump’s case, statements like “embrace the penguin.”

Though brief and cryptic, these posts embrace an online meme known as the “nihilistic penguin.” It originates in a viral clip taken from Werner Herzog’s 2007 documentary Encounters at the End of the World, in which a lone Adélie penguin abandons its colony and, instead of heading out to sea with its peers, slowly walks inland toward the icy Antarctic interior.

After he shared his post, Trump was immediately criticized, as his context was the proposed takeover of Greenland: There are no native penguins in Greenland, nor are there penguins anywhere else in the Arctic, as many noted.

Meanwhile, RFK’s post — with a similar AI-generated image of the Department of Health and Human Services secretary walking hand in hand with a penguin across a snowy landscape — had a message about rejecting mainstream medicine because it made us “sick” and turning toward the MAHA movement, instead.

As for the DHS, it shared on X footage of a penguin, with the words, “Americans have always known ‘why,'” and the British Reform Party shared a walking hand-in-hand with a penguin image along with the statement, “Choose a New Path for London.”

In the original movie voice-over, Herzog himself ponders why the penguin is behaving the way it does. The question “why” resonates with the DHS post, “Americans have always known ‘why’,” suggesting Trump’s ICE raids are somehow consistent with the American way.

Rebel? Or sick penguin marching toward its own doom?

But scientists note that the footage shows a rare behavior for the species, which typically stays near its colony and the ocean, where it can find food and survive more easily as part of the group. Experts note that when a penguin behaves this way, it is usually due to disorientation, illness, or stress rather than a conscious decision.

News coverage noted how the trend exploded just weeks before Trump’s and Kennedy’s posts, with the image saturating meme feeds and prompting commentary across age groups and political lines. Journalists pointed out the absurdity of placing a penguin — a bird native to the Southern Hemisphere — in a Greenland setting, but also highlighted how the meme’s emotional resonance had already taken root online.

Certain fringe users have repurposed the penguin clip for ideologically tinted posts. Still, the dominant spread of the “nihilist penguin” stems from young creators on TikTok, Reddit threads debating emotional meaning, and users across the political spectrum attaching personal interpretations to the imagery.

There’s irony in Trump and RFK Jr. embracing a meme about heading into what is almost certainly death, but has instead been co-opted by some as a symbol of independence and rebellion.

Responding to backlash and ridicule after Trump’s penguin post, the White House shared, “The penguin does not concern himself with the opinions of those who cannot comprehend.” It seems, though, it’s Trump himself who doesn’t understand that in nature, more often than not, creatures survive when they stick together.