Why Are People Calling Donald Trump 'Don Poorleone?' The Viral Nickname Explained

Donald Trump may not be the president of the U.S. anymore, but he's still proving a strong source of memes years later. Recently, he was given the nickname Don Poorleone after failing to pay a massive bond payment concerning a fraud charge dolled out to him earlier this year, inspiring a huge wave of memes. Here's what you need to know.

Where Does Donald Trump's Nickname 'Don Poorleone' Come From?

Back in February 2024, a New York judge hit Donald Trump with a charge of fraud for lying about his assets and net worth to get himself better financing terms. The charge came with a massive, roughly $454-million bond payment, which was due on March 25th, at which point his property could be seized if he failed to pay.

As the date approached, Trump's lawyers argued to the courts that Trump couldn't afford the charge. Reports of these claims spread like wildfire in March as the payment day crawled closer and closer, inspiring the nickname "Don Poorleone" that month. The earliest example of the nickname we can find was from March 21st by X user @alternativfctz, with the name really taking on a life of its own on the 24th, the day before his bond payment due date.

How Is 'Don Poorleone' Used In Memes?

The nickname, which is a reference to the character Don Vito Corleone from The Godfather, blew up across social media as Trump's biggest critics began using it to refer to the ex-president. Many of the posts using the nickname depict Trump as Corleone and offer a much more pathetic spin on the famous quote "I'm going to make him an offer he can't refuse," that being, "I made an offer everyone refused."

One person even posted a photo of the nickname written in chalk outside of a Trump hotel! The meme continued to spread during and past the March 25th bond deadline, arguably fuelled even further when it was reported that Trump now only has to pay around $141-million for the bond and has an additional 10 days to do so.

For the full history of Don Poorleone, be sure to check out Know Your Meme's encyclopedia entry for more information.