About

I Was a Business Man Doing Business is a memorable quote uttered by United States President Donald Trump at the final 2020 U.S. Presidential Debate in October 2020. Many online used screenshots of the president saying the quote as the punchline to jokes about illicit or absurd business dealings.

Origin

On October 22nd, 2020, the final U.S. Presidential debate occurred in Nashville, Tennessee. During the debate, moderator Kristen Welker asked about reports of a previously undisclosed Chinese bank account owned by Trump's business. She said:

Since you took office, you’ve never divested from your business, you’ve personally promoted your properties abroad. A report this week, which was referenced, does indicate that your company has a bank account in China. so, how can voters know that you don’t have any foreign conflicts of interest?

Trump responded:

I have many bank accounts and they were all listed and they were all over the place. I was a businessman doing business.

Spread

Follow the comment, people began posting images of Trump giving the answer online. Redditor Morgaaaaaaaaaaaan shared one of the earliest versions of the meme on the /r/dankmemes^[1] subreddit. The post received more than 92,000 points (96% upvoted) in less than 24 hours (shown below, left).

Over the next few hours, people on Reddit continued to meme the image. In the /r/dankmemes^[2] Redditor oklopfer shared a variation that received more than 26,000 points (98% upvoted) in less than 24 hours (shown below, center). Another meme in the /r/dankmemes^[3] subreddit received more than 28,000 points (98% upvoted) in less than 24 hours (shown below, right).

Various Examples

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Search Interest

External References