From Oval Office to viral joke: Donald Trump’s White House prayer moment turns into a meme fest in China

A White House prayer video featuring President Donald Trump has exploded into a parody craze in China, where small business owners are using it for humour and as an advertisement to boost their sales.Chinese factory bosses and shopkeepers form circles, hands on shoulders, "praying" for booming March sales or fat bonuses, in order to ape the video and this content is racking up millions of views on Chinese online platforms like Douyin and Weibo. The trend kicked off after the US prayer clip went viral, inspiring Chinese netizens to flip it into comedy gold. One viral post wrote, “President Zhang invited colleagues to pray for strong sales of aluminium cutting machines in March. Everyone stood around President Zhang and placed their hands on her shoulders,” shared on X. Another caption read, “On March 10 local time, President Zhang of Jiurun went to the production workshop and invited everyone to pray for sales in March, hoping for a surge in sales in March!!”The memes have spilled onto global platforms like Facebook and X, drawing mixed reactions. “I am so looking forward to the Chinese Century. Everything we’ve been told about them is just scaremongering - they’re funny as hell,” one user posted on X.Another wrote, “Joke or not, it’s actually a positive first step for the Chinese to explore having faith in something other than a secular world of materialism.” Another user wrote, “If there is this kind of sane humour, corrupt, cult-like humour never arises. Humour acts like a lubricant that loosens the rigidity of society,” per an X commenter.Yet irony lingers: “The irony here is hard to miss… In China, religious expression is fine as a meme, but practising it freely outside the state system can cross a political red line.”For Chinese bosses, it's just like free promo, turning Trump's solemn moment into viral ads. “The fact that Chinese businesses are turning his Oval Office prayer stunt into a viral joke and free marketing gold says it all. What he thought would look serious or inspiring abroad has instead become a spectacle, and the world is laughing at him,” said an X user.