Mining magnate and former member for Fairfax Clive Palmer announced on Sunday that he would be rebooting his political career and changing the name of his party from Palmer United to the United Australia Party.
In a press conference on Monday, Palmer confirmed what many in Canberra had been whispering all day — former One Nation senator Brian Burston, who had only an hour before announced he was sitting as an independent, would be joining his party as the leader in the Senate.
The press conference ended abruptly when the Parliament House sprinkler system was accidentally triggered.
Palmer had been flirting with a return to politics on social media, where he constructed an avid fan base of almost 200,000 followers, and formed a content creation hub he called the Palmy Army, which upon its inception quickly became full of alt-right trolls and anti-Semitic memes.
Palmer has been openly flaunting a populist agenda, using memes and moments in the media to discredit the establishment, all sides of politics, and the media.
He has issues with Rupert Murdoch's dominant position in the Australian media landscape, but has also discredited newer entrants to the Australian media landscape such as Junkee, The Guardian Australia, and BuzzFeed News.
So, only days after his "return" to politics, how did Australia's media and politicians handle it?
Plenty was written about Palmer's press conference announcement, partly because of the bizarre circumstances of the whole event, but also because of Labor Party MP Cathy O'Toole, who crashed the presser and poked Palmer with questions about money he allegedly owes people who worked for his Queensland Nickel organisation. Palmer has denied he owes anyone any money.
Palmer accused reporters present of editorialising and not reporting on what he was saying and later in the day announced he was considering running against O'Toole in the seat of Herbert at the next election.
Tony Wright, associate editor of The Age, wrote a scathing opinion piece about Palmer on Monday afternoon.
Clive Palmer is back to remind us that in politics, megalomania never grows old https://t.co/uc1c1Md2Ra
The journalistic flock in Canberra were also none-too-impressed with Palmer's return and the revelation that Burston would lead the new party. Canberra bureau chief for The Sydney Morning Herald, Bevan Shields, accused Burston of misleading the Senate by declaring he was an independent earlier that day.
My exchange with Brian Burston and Clive Palmer a few minutes ago... #auspol
Others took to Twitter to share their thoughts.
Imagine being so upset with Pauline Hanson that you think Clive Palmer is the answer.
Talk about playing with yourself.
If Clive Palmer has actually had 20,000 people contact him about joining his party since the WEEKEND, I will streak through those Senate courtyard sprinklers, because FFS.
Will UAP attract disappointed supporters of PHON which attracted disappointed supporters of PUP which attracted... #auspol
. @sportsbetcomau now has @CliveFPalmer not winning a HoR seat at $1.40. #auspol
On 2GB radio conservative commentator Andrew Bolt and political commentator and former Labor senator Graham Richardson weighed in on the return, calling it a clown show.
Richardson called Palmer the most hated figure in Australian politics. "This is a bloke who's a hated figure and he should be," he said. "He's got money again ... So I guess the ego is building up along with the bank account. But the problem is Australia hates this guy."
Earlier, Labor MP Steve Georganas had called Palmer "yesterday's man" and compared him to Lyle Lanley, the fictional Simpsons character who famously sold the city of Springfield a faulty monorail (mono=1, rail = rail).
Labor MP @stevegeorganas on @CliveFPalmer: Clive Palmer is yesterday's man ... People should look at Clive Palmer's record, they should see what he did while he was here. MORE: https://t.co/mBU14c5aou #pmlive https://t.co/VcGwg57vvF
"Everyone has the right to run, we do live in a democracy," he said. "But people should look at Clive Palmer's record, they should see what he did while he was [last] here."
Cory Bernardi of the Australian Conservatives said Palmer had turned politics into a circus: "He says he's got 20,000 emails from people; I suspect it's all the employees [of his] who have lost their jobs or need money."
The political editor of The Australian Dennis Shanahan also appeared on Sky News and criticised Palmer's publicity-at-all-costs approach. "It just seems incredible that anyone would want to align themselves with Clive Palmer," he said. "When all publicity is bad publicity you end up with your name as mud."
Former MP and Businessman Clive Palmer has announced Brian Burston will join his United Australia Party. The Australian's Dennis Shanahan: It seems incredible that anyone would want to align themselves with Clive Palmer. MORE: : https://t.co/ked55ZB451 #Credlin https://t.co/YOvHheSrLm
But over on Facebook, the community Palmer fostered to almost 200,000 members became became active, spurred partly by Palmer's own account and also by the closed "Palmy Army" group. There, people uploaded memes of Palmer as Bane, from The Dark Knight Rises, and discussed how they should respond to Cathy O'Toole's interruption of the first United Australia Party press conference.
Not every one of Palmer's "followers" on social media are serious supporters of the mining millionaire's political career, but nonetheless help him through ironic support.
And Palmer's official Facebook page has uploaded dozens of photos of people in front of his now infamous billboards, as well as memes about his intention to win the seat of Herbert in Townsville.
On Tuesday morning the Palmer media show continued, with the creator of the United Australia Party appearing on ABC News Breakfast and Channel 7's Sunrise, where he incorrectly named the Herbert electorate "Townsville".
“I’m considering running for the seat of Townsville” — @CliveFPalmer on his political comeback. #auspol #sun7
On Sunrise Palmer claimed he had a 70% approval rating in the "seat of Townsville". In reality, the poll was asking the population of Townsville if the nickel refinery in the area should be reopened. Palmer claimed he was once the Liberal Party's biggest donor and that "he knows how it works".
On News Breakfast Palmer took the opportunity to say US president Donald Trump's political campaign was inspired by his own, and that there had been contact made between both camps.
Later in the day, Palmer accused China of "trying to rape our country and our economy".
We are just two days into Palmer's United Australia Party becoming a reality and he has already drawn the attention of just about every media outlet in the country (disclosure: BuzzFeed News published a story about his return on Monday).
Palmer says he wants to run a United Australia candidate in every lower house seat at the next election, which prime minister Malcolm Turnbull has hinted may be in 2019, but could technically happen any time from August.
Media analytics company Buzzsumo shows there have been 27 Palmer-related stories published in the last 24 hours.
Plenty of time to go.