Donald Trump was ridiculed ruthlessly on social media after he suffered three major blows in one disaster of a day.
Social media was rife with jokes about “ketchup on the walls” and the hashtag #ketchup started trending online on Tuesday as a series of political and legal issues took a bad turn for the former president.
First, the Trump Organization was found guilty by a New York jury of all 17 counts of fraud, on charges stemming from what prosecutors described as a sweeping, multi-decade scheme to avoid paying payroll taxes by compensating top executives with untaxed benefits such as housing and automobiles.
Next, the chairman of the House select committee investigating the 6 January riot at the US Capitol announced that the committee will make criminal referrals. Representative Bennie Thompson did not reveal who will be the target of those referrals – but this will no doubt be unwelcome news to the former president whose actions lay at the centre of the committee hearings.
And then, on Tuesday night, Mr Trump-backed GOP candidate Herschel Walker crashed out of the senate race in Georgia’s runoff election. Democratic incumbent Raphael Warnock sailed to victory over Mr Walker securing a 51-49 majority for Democrats in the upper chamber and topping off a midterms where several candidates endorsed by Mr Trump were rejected by the American people.
As Mr Trump was dealt three major blows in a single day, liberal users on social media had a hay day with jokes about “ketchup on the wall”.
Activist Jeff Tiedrich, who has one million followers on Twitter, wrote: “The January 6th Committee has confirmed that they’re going to make CRIMINAL REFERRALS [sic] to the Justice Department. I hope they’ve hidden the ketchup at Mar-a-Lago. WILL BE WILD [sic].”
When the news of legal losses started airing, the joke snowballed and Democratic fundraiser Jon Cooper tweeted: “I bet there’s a LOT[sic] of ketchup flying at Mar-a-Lago right now.”
Another user chimed in: “I feel badly for the cleaning staff who will be stuck cleaning up all of that ketchup tonight.”
Another user said: “Heinz shares rocketed on this news.”
Howard Altman, author and lawyer, joked: “brace for ketchup.”
“Breaking: shortage of ketchup at MAL area supermarkets. No reason ascertained as yet,” former assistant US attorney for the Southern District of New York, Richard Signorelli, commented.
One social media commentator said: “I hear all the #Heinz #ketchup delivery trucks are being routed to FL.”
The genesis of the running “ketchup” joke among liberal users dated back to the testimony that the former top White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson gave in front of the House Select Committee investigating the January 6 riots. She revealed that Mr Trump had a tendency to throw his food.
“There was ketchup dripping down the wall and a shattered porcelain plate on the floor,” Ms Hutchinson testified, noting that White House staff nearby said the president was “extremely angry” after Bill Barr’s interview saying there was no voter fraud.
She told the committee that she grabbed a towel and started wiping the ketchup off the wall alongside a presidential valet.
