At 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday evening, the All University Events committee held a Mock Presidential Debate open to the NYU Abu Dhabi community.

While many countries have rich traditions of political satire, the phenomenon of mock debates is arguably most prominent within U.S. elections. Other forms of satire are also common. Click on any U.S. political hashtag and you’ll find GIFS-a-plenty of well-toupeed Trump — or a guinea pig in his likeness — dominating the most-shared content.

The debate at NYU began with a series of structured questions presented by moderator and U.S. American senior Dean Shaff. Senior Mohamed Amine Belarbi, speaking for Donald Trump, was a particularly eager debater.

“I’m the greatest thing to ever happen to women in the United States and probably the greatest thing to ever happen to women at NYU Abu Dhabi,” said Belarbi-as-Trump.

Interestingly enough, Belarbi himself has published two articles in his startup magazine Gulf Elite advocating for Trump as president. In one of these articles, Belarbi praised Trump’s ability to challenge the status quo in Washington.

“I personally find people like Donald Trump, whose ego is the size of Antarctica and whose pockets are deeper than the Pacific, fit to shake things up in Washington and disrupt the political establishment as we know it,” wrote Belarbi.

Given the frequently-cited diversity of NYUAD, some may be curious as to how such a U.S.-centric event managed to take place and engage the student population on Saadiyat.

The opening minutes of debate were met with an air of enthusiasm by the audience of five students, as evidenced by audible caws of admiration from the crowd directed towards senior Juliana Bello-as-Clinton as she waltzed to the table-as-podium in her navy and red pantsuit.

Yet as the evening progressed, many of the more nuanced references to U.S. politics seemed to fall flat. The events most successful comedy seemed to center around sophomore Patrick Reid's semi-socialist calls for revolution at NYUAD.

“The wealth is increasingly concentrated in the hands of the few. We must redistribute dining dirhams,” said Reid-as-Sanders. "We must end the monopoly of Nirvana travel.”

Reid later expressed surprise at his argumentative success.

“I literally found out about this event an hour ago when a senior student dropped out, so I didn’t try to do any sort of accent,” said Reid.

What does it signify about the state of U.S. politics that the most popular candidates are also the most mockable? It would be foolish to argue that the seemingly endless wave of media satire surrounding Trump, Clinton and Sanders has not impacted their place in the polls. U.S. election media restyles candidates as caricatures, splicing actual people from the policies they represent.

Social media works in tandem with formal media to celebritize candidates. Platforms like Facebook have drastically lowered the bar for displaying active political support to a candidate. Voters have already chosen which candidates they like before candidates have even explained what they stand for.

The social desirability to be seen as politically and morally consistent can cause these social media micro-endorsements to carry a greater weight than policy platforms. Trump-likers are tied tight to an online community, implicitly committed to shout #TRUMP in cyberspace choruses until the election ends.

Outside of the U.S., many become familiar with U.S. politicians exclusively through memes. Debate over candidates online distills to a #FeelTheBern hashtag or well-timed GIF of Hilary mid-grimace. In this contemporary cult of celebrity, politicians fuse with pixels. Candidates have become increasingly half-human, half-internet cyborgs that simultaneously seduce and repel the voting public.

The NYUAD Mock Presidential Debate adds yet another layer to the political onion. As Student Government pushes students to vote over the coming weeks, there is likely to be confusion. Is a vote for Bernie a vote for Patrick Reid in political drag, or a symbolic, semi-socialist snub to the Clinton dynasty?

Curious for the opinion of an individual eligible to vote in both U.S. and NYUAD-on-U.S. elections, our news team sidled up to moderator Dean Shaff for his take. Had this mock debate influenced who he intended to vote for?

“No. Not at all,” said Shaff. “This whole thing makes me want to cry.”