Rocky Trump

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About

Rocky Trump refers to a photoshopped image of Rocky III poster with the head of the United States President Donald Trump photoshopped upon Rocky Balboa's body. Posted by Donald Trump on Twitter on November 27th, the image became a subject of jokes and discussions online and was used by the Hong Kong protestors as an expression of gratitude after Trump signed legislation sanctioning Chinese and Hong Kong officials.

Origin

On November 27th, 2019, the United States President Donald Trump tweeted an image of Rocky Balboa originally taken from Rocky III movie poster (original and edited version shown below).^[1] The image had Donald Trump's head photoshopped upon Rocky Balboa's naked torso. The tweet received over 197,200 retweets and 691,300 likes in one week.

Spread

In the following hours, the photoshopped image became the subject of discussions and memes on Twitter and Reddit. For example, a November 27th, 2019, tweet by user @AngelaBelcamino gained over 2,900 retweets and 18,100 likes in one week (shown below, left).^[2] A November 28th, 2019, post by Redditor Lazy_Dervish received over 1,700 upvotes in the same period (shown below, right).^[3]

On November 27th, 2019, Twitter user @Lincolnbdrinkin tweeted a photoshopped Rocky IV image showing American politician Nancy Pelosi as Rocky Balboa punching Donald Trump as the film antagonist Ivan Drago (shown below),^[4] with the image also being posted in the Occupy Democrats Facebook group where it received over 32,000 reactions and 7,900 shares in one week.^[5] On November 30th, 2019, Christine Pelosi, the daughter of Nancy Pelosi, shared the image, with tweet receiving over 50,500 likes and 9,400 retweets in four days.^[6]

Use in Hong Kong Protests

On November 27th, 2018, the United States President Donald Trump signed the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act which was passed by the House of Representatives on November 20th.^[7] The act authorizes sanctions on Chinese and Hong Kong officials for human rights abuses and requires an annual review of Hong Kong’s special trade status by the State Department.

On November 28th, 2019, Hong Kong protesters held a "Thanksgiving Rally," with many participants draped in American flags and holding the printed images of Rocky Trump as an expression of gratitude for the support (photograph shown below).

In the following days, multiple news outlets reported on the protest, including articles by The Washington Post,^[7] Fox News^[8] and New York Post.^[9]