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Trump touched an orb and now Twitter is glowing crazy

Every sci-fi reference imaginable was rolled out to describe the eerie photo shared by the Saudi Embassy.

Gael Cooper
CNET editor Gael Fashingbauer Cooper, a journalist and pop-culture junkie, is co-author of "Whatever Happened to Pudding Pops? The Lost Toys, Tastes and Trends of the '70s and '80s," as well as "The Totally Sweet '90s." She's been a journalist since 1989, working at Mpls.St.Paul Magazine, Twin Cities Sidewalk, the Minneapolis Star Tribune, and NBC News Digital. She's Gen X in birthdate, word and deed. If Marathon candy bars ever come back, she'll be first in line.
Expertise Breaking news, entertainment, lifestyle, travel, food, shopping and deals, product reviews, money and finance, video games, pets, history, books, technology history, generational studies. Credentials
  • Co-author of two Gen X pop-culture encyclopedia for Penguin Books. Won "Headline Writer of the Year"​ award for 2017, 2014 and 2013 from the American Copy Editors Society. Won first place in headline writing from the 2013 Society for Features Journalism.
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Gael Cooper
Watch this: Trump touched an orb and Twitter went in

Thanks to Twitter , presidential photo ops these days can quickly turn into minefields -- witness President Donald Trump sliding behind the wheel of a giant truck in March and the internet driving it into the ground.

And then came the Orb. On Sunday, the Saudi Embassy tweeted out a photo of President Trump, Saudi Arabia's King Salman and Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi with their hands on a glowing globe.

Trump is of course in Saudi Arabia as part of his first trip abroad as president. The tweet explained that the men were inaugurating a new center meant to combat extremist ideology in Saudi Arabia's capital, Riyadh.

But the photo itself, with the eerie glow of the orb casting a strange light on the faces of the three leaders, was too reminiscent of every science-fiction/fantasy story ever, and Twitter jokesters couldn't pass it up.

Some minds immediately went to Tolkien.

Others took a Star Trek path.

Some went Star Wars instead.

Harry Potter was mentioned.

"Twin Peaks," which returned Sunday night, came into the conversation.

As did the classic "Space Jam."

And some just had fun with it.


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