It’s very hard to be a world leader in the age of social media. India’s Prime Minister recently received a gun salute at a formal event, when a horse behind him decided to, for lack of a better phrase, show off his wares. It immediately became a metaphor about his leadership losing control.
Conversely, India’s Opposition leader Rahul Gandhi had a massive viral moment while addressing a large youth group in Indore, where he was hugged by a Modi impersonator, mocking the PM’s common practice of giving other world leaders tight, unwanted hugs. Nobody cared what the event was, or what Gandhi said in it.
British Prime Minister Andy Burnham got off a limousine in New York for the UN summit with an unbuttoned, non-tucked-in shirt and the British press lambasted him like he’d surrendered in World War II — just based on a three-second clip of him getting out of a car. British parliamentarian and podcaster Rory Stewart, an erudite, thoughtful policy maker, turned his head a second too early to look at a fellow panelist on a BBC discussion panel and the meme world went crazy. It’ll probably haunt him for the rest of his life.
Donald Trump decided to kick CNN and MSNBC out of his media pool, which led to all the major American broadcasters boycotting him. As a result, the most viral clip of him this week is him talking about a new Air Force One helicopter pad, but thankfully we can’t hear anything.
We live in an age where it does not matter, as the leader of a nation, what your policies are, what you’re actually doing all day, or even if you drop bombs or upset the rules-based order.
What matters is which clips of you go viral and for what reason.
It could explain why the most loved leader is New York mayor Zohran Mamdani, because he makes relatable, fun, Gen Z clips where he’s always walking and talking and explaining policy, while funny graphics are popping up around him. Meanwhile, the least liked world leader is Vladimir Putin, whose biggest crime, apart from invading countries he shouldn’t, is that he’s not on Instagram. If Churchill or Roosevelt or Mahatma Gandhi were alive, their modus operandi to communicate with people wouldn’t be long memorable speeches, they’d make short to-the-point reels where they’d do a quick, quirky, ironic, authentic thing, ideally to the song Patient Zero, by Taylor Swift.
If Churchill or Roosevelt or Mahatma Gandhi were alive, their modus operandi to communicate with people wouldn’t be long memorable speeches, they’d make short to-the-point reels
In fact, world leaders have recognised the game, and rather than shy away from it, are playing into it. Canada’s Mark Carney, in the middle of a tariff war with the US, gave a speech where, for no reason, he threw in a stand-up style Trump impression, which naturally became way more popular than the policy he announced. In the age of 10-second dopamine bursts, Prime Ministers and Presidents have realised they need a reel to keep the public occupied, while they quietly go off and do the real things that affect our lives. Like start a war or rig an election.
Which of course leads me to the most viral internet world leader moment of 2026, which came at the G7 in June this year. Prime Minister Modi and Italy’s Giorgia Meloni have long been subject to an internet rumour romantically linking the two under the conjunctive ‘Melody’, a trite, regressive idea that they’re both single and have had viral ‘moments’ together, walking, talking, staring at things. Rather than ignore it, which would have happened in any other era, or even be irritated by it, they doubled down. Modi posted a selfie with Meloni with a popular Indian chocolate candy called Melody.
It broke the internet.
Who needs an ‘I have a dream’ speech when you can achieve the same results with a chocolate candy and an Insta photo?
