The GOP has been faced with their anti-Elmo history after trying to welcome him into the MAGA fold.
Republicans began warming up to Elmo Friday when he appeared in a FIFA World Cup video on X wearing a USA soccer jersey and declaring: “Elmo just wants to set the record straight... GO TEAM USA!”
In the video, Elmo squeaked: “Just to be clear, Elmo wants Team USA to win, okay? But Elmo loves everybody!”
Seemingly predicting that it could become a culture war flashpoint, the red monster ordered: “Just to be clear. Don’t make this a thing. Thank you.”
Looking around at his imagined audience, he concluded: “Elmo loves you, and Elmo loves you, and Elmo loves you, and Team USA, and everybody who’s playing.”
House Republicans promptly ignored Elmo’s request not to make it “a thing”: “Elmo is a certified PATRIOT!” they wrote on X.
The enthusiasm appeared to stem from Republicans viewing Elmo’s support for Team USA as an unapologetically pro-America statement from a character associated with Sesame Street and public broadcasting—institutions conservatives have frequently slammed as “woke.”
House Republicans then escalated matters further, adding: “Meanwhile, Democrats are rooting for foreigners...”
While the GOP was happy to invite Elmo to the party, others weren’t so quick to forget their previous slights against the beloved childhood character.
“You clowns literally defunded elmo,” one person raged, with another echoing: “You a-----es voted to defund PBS and called Sesame Street woke. You couldn’t be more hypocritical, loud, wrong, or clueless.”
The backlash touched on a very real fight involving the fuzzy character.
Last May, Trump signed an executive order axing all funding for PBS and NPR, including kids’ shows Mister Roger’s Neighborhood, Elmo’s World, and Sesame Street.
While Trump claimed that the networks were “biased,” PBS hit back in a lawsuit that the president was overstepping regulations that prevent him from controlling its content.
“The executive order makes no attempt to hide the fact that it is cutting off the flow of funds to PBS because of the content of PBS programming and out of a desire to alter the content of speech. That is blatant viewpoint discrimination,” PBS lawyers complained.
Before Sesame Street was picked up by Netflix, Elmo himself waded into the legal defunding drama by posting on LinkedIn that he was “looking for his next opportunity.”
“Unfortunately, Elmo was recently laid off because of federal budget cuts. Elmo worked at Sesame Street for over 40 years. Elmo is sad. Elmo loved his time at Sesame Street,” his bittersweet update began.
