‘Shapiro’s Self-Promotion Madness’ bracket now live on X, Trump officials dispute governor’s claim that his actions unfroze federal funds

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March 21st, 2025 | By Ryan Genova

Governor Josh Shapiro of Abington Township has been nicknamed “TikTok Josh” by the right-leaning Commonwealth Foundation as a criticism of his social media content and its alleged $1 million+ cost.

The Harrisburg-based foundation has put together “Shapiro’s Self-Promotion Madness” (a parody of the NCAA’s March Madness) which “[pits] the governor’s top eight cringiest videos against one another. Each round, two videos will face off, and voters on Twitter/X can vote for the ‘cringiest’ of the two.”

From their March 11 X.com post:

If there is one thing that Gov. Josh Shapiro loves, it’s social media. The governor — thanks to his taxpayer-funded, nine-person “digital strategy” team who makes nearly $900,000 annually in salaries alone — has curated quite the public persona on TikTok, Facebook, and X/Twitter.

Unfortunately, his content is rarely informative and interesting. Instead, most of the governor’s posts are—as the kids say—”cringe.” Cringe is “when someone acts … or is embarrassing or awkward,” states Urban Dictionary. “It makes you feel extremely ashamed and/or embarrassed.”

The bracket can be found here.


An excerpt from The National Review‘s article from earlier this month titled “Josh Shapiro Wants You to Know He’s Groovy and Cool“:

Admittedly, Shapiro’s TikTok antics are not as cringey as the infamous Choose Your Fighter stunt — channeling a stew of the Powerpuff Girls, the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, and aging Mutant Ninja Turtles — that a sextet of Democratic House members (Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Susie Lee, Katherine Clark, Jasmine Crockett, Lauren Underwood, and Judy Chu) dropped on an embarrassed America last week.

But the supposedly sober (as in “. . . and judicious) Pennsylvania chief executive has caught the party’s bug, the one that infected Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign: that elections are won and issues advanced by big-name celebrity payouts and waged through social media (at one point deemed “genius” by Newsweek, a judgement that did not age well).

In related news, Trump’s White House is disputing Shapiro’s claim that his legal action and advocacy were responsible for the unfreezing of $2.1 billion in Congressionally-appropriated federal funding owed to Pennsylvania.

During a February luncheon with President Donald Trump’s cabinet members, Shapiro made his case directly to top officials. Prior to his visit, Shapiro filed a lawsuit against the Trump Administration over the funding freeze. 

“Those agreements are binding,” Shapiro said in a February 24 announcement. “To put it simply, a deal is a deal. The Trump administration is legally required to provide these funds to Pennsylvania. That is why I took legal action to protect Pennsylvanians.”

“Governor Shapiro is lying,” said Harrison Fields, a White House deputy press secretary, in a statement last week. “Agencies are reviewing all funds for consistency with the law, waste, and the administration’s priorities. Pressure by governors is not one of those factors, and funds within Pennsylvania are being reviewed the same as everything else.”

According to York Dispatch, Shapiro’s press secretary Manuel Bonder provided a detailed timeline of his efforts, adding that they “have the receipts.”

“The Democratic Party is in shambles, so no wonder he’s trying to look good,” Fields said after reviewing Shapiro’s timeline. “He is not telling the truth. He is overstating what he was able to do.”

Shapiro was appointed by the White House in mid-February to serve as one of 10 new members to lead the bipartisan Council of Governors.

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Images: Commonwealth Foundation, TikTok