Cheeto Jesus is a pejorative nickname aimed at Donald Trump that riffs on his signature orange complexion by likening it to the neon dust coating Frito-Lay's cheese snack1. The name pairs trashy junk-food imagery with mock-messianic language, poking at both Trump's tanning-bed glow and the near-religious devotion his supporters showed during the 2016 Republican primary3.

The phrase came from Rick Wilson, a longtime Republican consultant and one of the loudest voices in the Never Trump camp, who dropped it in a Twitter rant blasting the Republican National Committee for backing Trump days after the Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando1. The nickname stuck almost immediately, running as a hashtag on Twitter and getting turned into a lineup of doctored images that swapped Trump's face onto Cheetos, Circus Peanuts, and other orange snack foods4.

The Cheeto Jesus format is usually one of two things. It is either a text jab that swaps the nickname in for Trump's name in political commentary, or a doctored image that puts Trump's face on something orange and processed. Common versions include Trump's face on a single Cheeto puff, on a Circus Peanut candy, or on a Frito-Lay bag4. Image versions often lean into the mock-messianic angle by adding halos, robes, or stained-glass framing to sell the Jesus half of the joke. As a text insult the phrase works as a straight substitution, typically used by Never Trump conservatives and left-leaning critics alike.