Ever since Donald Trump alleged that Kamala Harris was calling for “transgender operations on illegal aliens that are in prison” at Tuesday night’s presidential debate, the phrase can’t stop rattling around in the internet’s collective brain. Beyond the statement itself being a seemingly random combination of conservative buzzwords, the imagery it conjures was too good not to become a meme. Now, one of the year’s fastest growing pop stars has added a new layer to the trans alien lore.

At Wednesday night’s VMAs, pop princess Sabrina Carpenter performed a medley of hits from her new album Short ‘n Sweet, with an aesthetic that was literally out of this world. Her performances of “Please, Please, Please,” “Espresso,” and “Taste” all featured an outer space theme, including moonrock set pieces and dancers clad in spacesuits.

During the “Taste” section of the set, Carpenter reenacted the viral moment from the music video where she kissed Jenna Ortega — though this time, Ortega was swapped out for a femme blue alien, bugging black eyes, extended skull, and all.

The kiss took plenty of folks by surprise, including Britney Spears, who took to Instagram to express her confusion. “Why is she kissing an alien on stage?” Spears asked. “Why didn’t she kiss a girl?”

But others were more concerned with the memeable implications of Carpenter’s big kiss: perhaps this was the transgender alien Trump was talking about! After all, Carpenter’s no stranger to incorporating queerness in her music, from lamenting her lack of a gay awakening on the song “Slim Pickins” to warning she’d call her lover gay on the bonus track “Busy Woman.” Who’s to say that her alien make-out partner couldn’t be representing for LGBTQ+ folks too?

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Check out Carpenter’s full performance at the VMAs below.

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