While the group's members have been uploading the images, Palmer's main account has been posting within the group.



The 8,000-member group, which was started by Palmer's Facebook account on 22 February, was initially used as a meme farm, collecting images that would then be shared across to the official page.

BuzzFeed News notes that it has never been confirmed if it is Palmer himself running the accounts or if someone else is paid to do it.



Palmer recently announced he would be seeking election again, having shut down his Palmer United Party in 2017 after a three-year stint as the lower house MP for Fairfax.

The new Facebook group could represent an attempt to replicate the large online presence Donald Trump capitalised on during his campaign to become US president. In the 2016 US election, Trump memes, Pepe the frog, and propaganda reigned supreme as Trump’s vocal online supporters swamped opposition.

Palmer has used social media as a way to mobilise his troops, pushing them towards swarming other politicians' Facebook pages and urging the creation of meme propaganda that focusses less on the policies of his party and more on the populist angle that the mining magnate is the superior option to run the country.