The phrase first gained wide attention in January 2018 when Donald Trump described himself on Twitter as a very stable genius while president of the United States. He later used the stronger wording extremely stable genius when speaking to reporters in 2019, and recordings of that moment were clipped and shared widely. News coverage turned the line into a shorthand for his self-assured style, and meme creators adopted it ironically, reposting the audio whenever a bold claim was followed by an immediate contradiction or failure.