'No DNA, just RSA!': How a fake Trump quote transformed into a patriotic meme

If you've been following the ongoing annual Rugby Championship played by South Africa, New Zealand, Australia, and Argentina, you may have been left scratching your head over the number of X (formerly Twitter) posts sporting the hashtag #NoDNAJustRSA following South Africa's 31-27 victory against New Zealand on Saturday, August 31. By 6 p.m. that evening, the phrase "No DNA" was the 12th trending topic on South African X, at nearly 10,000 posts. 

South African X users have relentlessly posted the hashtag and slogan after a series of sporting wins. Even the government has joined in, following Olympic sprinter Bayanda Walaza's gold at the World Athletics U20 Championships just a month after he won silver at the Olympics.

A screenshot of an X post by the official South African government using the phrase 'No DNA, just RSA" following athlete Bayanda Walaza's gold medal at the World Athletics U20 Championships. 

While the slogan is undeniably catchy, not everybody is sure what it actually means. Surprisingly, the slogan originates from the other side of the world. South African sports fans have breathed new life into a piece of Trump misinformation that went viral during the COVID-19 pandemic by adding a local spin. 

The fake Trump quote that started it all

On October 2, 2020, then-President Donald Trump announced on his X (then Twitter) account that he and First Lady Melania Trump had tested positive for COVID-19 in the run-up to the presidential elections. The announcement spurred numerous memes, TikTok videos, and X posts ranging from well-wishes to jokes about the president's health. 

These memes included parodies. Perhaps the most famous of these was a screenshot of what appeared to be a post from Trump's X account stating that the doctors who had examined him had "never seen a body kill the coronavirus like mine."

The post goes on to claim, "They said my body was made to kill virus's [sic]. They tested my DNA and they said it wasn't DNA, it was USA."

A screenshot that appears to show Donald Trump tweeting the now infamous quote. The screenshot has since been debunked. 

Of course, there is no record that Trump ever actually said this. Fact-checkers were quick to point out that there is no evidence this post ever existed and that Trump made no mention of his DNA during a televised speech he gave updating the nation on his progress outside the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center where he received treatment. 

But the internet isn't one to let the truth get in the way of a meme that is both very funny and is just about Trumpian enough to sound believable. The fake quote quickly went viral anyway and was translated into multiple languages to ensure it reached all corners of the internet. One of those corners was South Africa. 

A new meme is born

Somewhere along the line, someone figured out that by simply switching a "U" to an "R," the phrase could go from referring to the United States of America to the Republic of South Africa. 

It's not clear when the South African version was first posted. An early version emerged on December 12, 2021, after President Cyril Ramaphosa announced that he had tested positive for COVID-19. This version appeared to be a fairly straightforward parody of the original fake quote, featuring a photo of Ramaphosa captioned, "The doctors said they've never seen a body kill the Coronavirus like my body. They tested my DNA and it wasn't DNA. It was RSA." It received nearly 1,000 reposts and was liked over 4,000 times. 

An early version of the phrase which was an almost verbatim parody of the original fake Trump quote. (Source: X/Screenshot)

By July 2023, the phrase had transformed into the more patriotic tongue-in-cheek version that is pervasive today. In the lead-up to the national women's football team, netball team, and men's rugby team competing internationally in the same weekend, a South African X user posted, "The doctors tested my DNA and it wasn't DNA. It was RSA. 🇿🇦" 

The slogan was quickly adopted to celebrate a range of South African wins on the international stage, from the Springboks's title-winning performance in the 2023 Rugby World Cup to the international success of South African Grammy-award-winning singer Tyla. After a few visual forms of the slogan, including an AI-generated image of a DNA strand infused with the South African flag, hit social media, a new meme was born.

Visual meme forms of the 'No DNA just RSA' slogan which have been shared on social media. (Source: X/Screenshots/Composite by Logically Facts)

We used a social media analytics tool to try and track just how popular #NoDNAJustRSA has gotten. Turns out, the hashtag is still largely limited to X. However, it has surged in popularity since June 2023, reaching peaks whenever South Africa wins such as on August 18, when the national rugby team won back-to-back matches in Australia for the first time in 53 years. The analytics show that the hashtag's usage is beginning to spill onto other platforms like YouTube and Facebook. Posts containing the slogan have been spotted on other platforms like Reddit and TikTok. 

Graph showing the number of posts that used #NoDNAJustRSA on X and Facebook between June 5 and September 4, 2024. Made using Flourish. 

With popular figures like Olympic silver medalist Shaun Maswanganyi, South African Minister of Sports, Arts and Culture Gayton McKenzie, and the official opposition party the Democratic Alliance joining in, it's clear that the meme is here to stay. And with the Springboks due to face the All Blacks again on Saturday, September 7, it's likely another burst of South African flavored DNA strands will be lighting up social media over the weekend.