About

Chris Christie "Donald Duck" is a nickname given to former U.S. President Donald Trump by former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie during the second Republican debate in September 2023. The name inherently referenced the Disney cartoon character but also signaled to Trump "ducking" questions by not appearing on the debate stage. A clip of the moment went viral on social media sites like X / Twitter after it aired, inspiring a slew of Donald Duck memes. Alternatively, many captioned a screencap of Christie's face in the moment, likening it to a "zinger face" or the Kevin James Smirking meme.

Origin

On September 27th, 2023, the second Republican debate for the 2024 election cycle aired on national television. At one point in the debate, former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie told the audience that former U.S. President Donald Trump (who hadn't attended any of the debates thus far) was "ducking" them, not because of his indictments but because he was afraid to answer questions about his presidency. Christie called Trump "Donald Duck" in reference to the act of "ducking" questions.

The clip was posted by X^[1] user @JordanUhl on September 27th, gaining roughly 4.3 million views and 10,200 likes in less than a day (shown below).

"We're going to call you Donald Duck" pic.twitter.com/JqAx54XNGj

— jordan (@JordanUhl) September 28, 2023

Spread

The clip quickly gained reactions and memes on X leading into the morning after the debate. For instance, on September 27th, 2023, X^[2] user @BirdRespecter posted Christie's face, writing, "the zinger face. in his mind he just slammed trump through the hell in a cell cage like the undertaker and mankind," gaining roughly 4,400 likes in less than a day (shown below, left). Also on September 27th, X^[3] user @greg_price11 compared Christie to the Kevin James Smirking meme, receiving roughly 2,000 likes in the same timeframe (shown below, right).

Other than the usage of Chris Christie's face or soundbite, others made memes that likened Donald Trump to Donald Duck, such as X^[4] user @oybay on September 27th, who drew Trump in Donald Duck's art style, gaining roughly 3,900 likes in less than a day (shown below).

Viral quotes of @JordanUhl's original video continued to surface on X^[5] going into the days following. Similar content also surfaced on TikTok ^[6] and Facebook. ^[7]

Various Examples

Search Interest

Unavailable.

External References