May 20, 2026
Meme, Jail, Payday: Internet Erupts
Victory: Tennessee man jailed 37 days for Trump meme wins $835,000 settlement
He got 37 days in jail over a meme — now commenters want someone else to pay
TLDR: A Tennessee man who spent 37 days in jail over a Facebook meme will get $835,000, and commenters are stunned it happened at all. The big fight online is whether that payout is justice, too little, or unfair if taxpayers — not the officials involved — end up paying for it.
The internet is having a full-blown “you cannot be serious” moment after Tennessee man Larry Bushart won an $835,000 settlement for being jailed 37 days over a Facebook meme. The meme quoted Donald Trump’s own “we have to get over it” line after a tragedy, and according to the lawsuit, local officials treated it like a threat anyway. Bushart lost time with his family, missed his anniversary and even the birth of his grandchild, and commenters are loudly arguing that $835,000 still feels too small for a month-plus behind bars.
The biggest drama in the comments? Who should really pay. One camp is furious that taxpayers may be left holding the bag, with people demanding the officers involved be fined personally or even jailed themselves. Another camp slammed the revenge-energy, arguing that if overuse of jail is the problem, the answer cannot be more jail for everybody we’re mad at. That clash turned the thread into a mini morality play: accountability versus anti-incarceration principles.
And yes, the meme itself became part of the spectacle, with one commenter dropping a link to the image like exhibit A in the internet’s favorite genre: receipts. The overall vibe was part outrage, part disbelief, part dark comedy. The crowd’s verdict was brutally simple: if a harmless meme can land someone in jail for 37 days, then this wasn’t just a bad call — it was a terrifyingly expensive lesson in free speech.
Key Points
- •Larry Bushart will receive $835,000 to settle a federal civil rights lawsuit against Sheriff Nick Weems, Investigator Jason Morrow, and Perry County, Tennessee.
- •Bushart was arrested after sharing a Facebook meme quoting Donald Trump following the September 2025 assassination of Charlie Kirk.
- •The article states the meme referred to the 2024 Perry High School shooting in Perry, Iowa, and that Bushart did not create or alter it.
- •Bushart spent more than a month in jail on a $2 million bond before being released after his case gained national attention.
- •FIRE says the case is part of a broader wave of censorship actions tied to online speech after Kirk’s assassination, and cites related Tennessee cases involving Monica Meeks and Austin Peay State University.