# Cheeto Jesus
Cheeto Jesus is a mocking nickname for Donald Trump coined by Republican strategist Rick Wilson in a ten-part Twitter rant on June 15, 2016. The name compares Trump's orange complexion to Frito-Lay's cheese-dusted snack, and it spawned a wave of Photoshopped parodies on Twitter and Reddit within 48 hours.
## Overview
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 snack[1]. 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 primary[3].
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 Orlando[1]. 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 foods[4].
## How It Spread
The nickname jumped from Wilson's feed to the wider internet fast. On the same day, Twitter user @GroverOwnedPawn shared a photo of a Circus Peanut candy with Trump's face pasted on top, and by June 16 dozens of Photoshopped Trump-as-snack images were flying around under the hashtag #CheetoJesus; Redditor MushroomFry submitted a Cheeto Jesus photo to /r/EnoughTrumpSpam that pulled roughly 14,800 votes and 280 comments in 24 hours[4].
Political blogs and news sites amplified the joke inside two days. The Daily Dot published a play-by-play of the whole tweetstorm and quipped that if Wilson "wasn't so caught up in politics, he could definitely compete with some of the shadiest queens on RuPaul's Drag Race"[2]. Mother Jones ran the numbered tweets as an "epic" tirade and credited Wilson with coining the nickname[1].
By later that week the joke had crossed into mainstream press. The Huffington Post ran a summary of Wilson's tweets and framed Cheeto Jesus as the newest weapon in the Never Trump movement's public fight with the RNC[3]. CNET, Inquisitr, and other pop-culture outlets followed with roundups of the ongoing Photoshop pile-on, and the phrase kept surfacing in political commentary for the rest of the 2016 campaign[1].
## How to Use
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 bag[4]. 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.
## Frequently Asked Questions
### What is Cheeto Jesus?
It is a pejorative nickname for Donald Trump that compares his orange skin tone to Frito-Lay's cheese-dusted Cheetos snack[1].
### Where did Cheeto Jesus come from?
Republican strategist Rick Wilson coined it in a ten-part anti-Trump Twitter rant posted on June 15, 2016[1].
### What does Cheeto Jesus mean?
It mocks Trump's orange complexion (Cheeto) and the messianic devotion of his 2016 supporters (Jesus), and it was aimed at his self-congratulatory response to the Orlando shooting[3].
### How do you use Cheeto Jesus?
You either drop the nickname into political commentary as a substitute for Trump's name, or you Photoshop his face onto an orange snack like a Cheeto or a Circus Peanut[4].
### Is Cheeto Jesus still popular?
It peaked in June 2016 during the primary season and is now a classic 2016-era political meme still referenced in coverage of Trump's public image[1].
### Who is Rick Wilson?
Rick Wilson is a veteran Republican political consultant and one of the most vocal figures in the Never Trump movement, known for profanity-laced attacks on the RNC[1].
### What exactly did the Cheeto Jesus tweet say?
"This weekend, people were lined up hundreds deep to give blood to the victims of Orlando. Your Cheeto Jesus was praising himself," posted on June 15, 2016[3].
### Why Cheetos and not another snack?
The orange coloring of Frito-Lay's Cheetos matches Trump's tanning-bed complexion, which was already a running joke about him before Wilson formalized it[2].
### Which news outlets covered the meme?
The Daily Dot, Mother Jones, Huffington Post, CNET, and Inquisitr all ran pieces about the nickname within days of the tweet[2].
### What triggered Rick Wilson's tweetstorm?
Wilson was reacting to Trump's response to the June 12, 2016 Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando, where Trump congratulated himself for being "right on Islamic terrorism"[3].
## References
1. [https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2016/06/rick-wilson-epic-never-trump-tweetstorm/]()
2. [https://www.dailydot.com/unclick/cheeto-jesus-donald-trump-meme/]()
3. [https://www.huffpost.com/entry/gop-operative-lashes-out-at-party-calls-trump-cheeto-jesus-in-epic-tweetstorm_n_57626d13e4b05e4be860ec59]()
4. [https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/cheeto-jesus]()
5. [https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Cheeto%20Jesus]()
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Source: https://meme.com/memes/cheeto-jesus
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