The saying first appeared in 2009 using the hashtag#thanksobama in a tweet about President Obama's policies. Three months later, it was used in a demotivational poster.[2]
Shortly after the Republicans gained control of the House in the U.S. midterm election of 2010, liberals and Democrats repurposed the meme to blame Obama satirically for disparate societal or economic ills.[2][3] One notable[4] example came in 2012, when a picture of a man spilling food with the "Thanks Obama" caption was popular. In December 2012, the /r/thanksobamasubreddit was created.[5]
By 2015, it seemed the meme had run its course[2] after Obama used it in a BuzzFeed video.[6] Obama himself revived it in 2016, using it to poke fun at his critics[7] and to thank a supporter who, during a speech, yelled out at and thanked him for $2 gas.[8]
In 2022, the Twitter account for President Joe Biden (who had served as vice president in the Obama administration) posted the phrase in response to a tweet by Obama acknowledging the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act.[10]
