A man has taken action to ensure he doesn't have to see or hear incoming President Donald Trump ahead of his second term, and he told Newsweek his plan is going swimmingly
Todd Masterson, 44, lives in Seattle and works as a content creator, having moved from Los Angeles during the pandemic. And, following the November 5 election in which Trump defeated Vice President Kamala Harris, Masterson made a decision.
"Trump forces himself on everyone, and I'm not going to let him do it to me," he said.
Newsweek has emailed the Trump Transition Team for comment.
Masterson revealed a plan to avoid hearing or seeing the Republican in a viral post to Threads on his account @gayfatfriend on November 12, declaring: "I'm doing the 4B movement, but for Trump."
The movement began in South Korea in 2019, pioneered by feminists determined to dismantle traditional expectations, encouraging women to reclaim autonomy over their bodies and reject traditional gender norms of marriage and childbearing. The 4B stands for—bihon (no marriage), bichulsan (no childbirth), biyeonae (no dating), and bisekseu (no sex).
Discussions on the movement have spiked in the U.S, following the overturning of Roe V Wade which led to abortion bans, and again since Trump's reelection as president.
Now Masterson has gone viral for declaring his own twist on the movement in his Threads post, as he described it: "I'll never hear his voice again. I'll never see his face. I'll never watch clips. I'll never watch the news again."
He clarified in the post: "I will stay politically active and pay attention to things, but I'm not going to see his face or hear his voice ever again. I'll scroll past, mute, change the channel, leave the room. Whatever I have to do."
Masterson told Newsweek: "It almost feels like we're all starting high school over again after graduating college, so we know what's eventually going to happen and we're pre-dealing with it."
He said his 4B idea is "working swimmingly so far," as he has "not heard his voice since election day."
And while he has seen two photographs, including the viral snap of Trump with Robert F Kennedy Jr and Elon Musk eating McDonald's on the President-elect's private jet, he quickly hides them from his online feed.
"We're harnessing the power of the swipe and using the strength of the algorithm to erase him from our feeds. My feed is getting so smart now that there are days I don't even see his name," he said. "It's pretty glorious."
That said, he is still going to keep up with the news—just not with Trump personally.
"The news of the world is constantly in front of us, so I'm always going to hear what's happening. It's really easy to hear about it without his voice or his people," he explained.
"As a gay man, I'm always going to be politically active and stay up to date with the problems of the world, simply because my existence is political and I have no choice but to pay attention, but I refuse to normalize that man again."
Masterson used to work in TV before moving to Seattle, and called Saturday Night Live star James Austin Johnson a "buddy of mine," but he can't even bring himself to "watch his Trump [impression] on SNL anymore."
He isn't alone in his decision to intentionally avoid the president-elect, who won both the popular vote and Electoral College vote, as one commenter replied to his post revealing their New Year's Resolution "is to NEVER hear his voice or see his face. I will not post about him or talk about him … MAGA will not get one ounce of my attention."
Another wrote: "Glad to know I'm not the only one doing this. I will fight his harmful policies, I will protect those most vulnerable to those policies, but I'll be damned if I give him the attention he craves."
Masterson said: "I got so many great responses to my Thread. We're all cutting him out.
"It's almost like the end of Stephen King's IT. We're not afraid of him and we're not going to give him the attention he wants."