Donald Trump 'Prison Body' Comment Sparks Avalanche of Jokes, Memes

Fox News host Jesse Watters has been ridiculed online after he said former President Donald Trump would spend time working out if he ever went to prison.

Trump, the presumptive 2024 Republican presidential nominee, is currently standing trial in Manhattan in a criminal hush money case. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges and said the case against him is politically motivated.

New York State Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan imposed a gag order against Trump during the trial and has fined the former president $10,000 for 10 gag order violations. On Monday morning Merchan threatened Trump with jail should the violations continue.

"The last thing I want to do is put you in jail," Merchan said to Trump. "You are the former president of the U.S. and possibly the next."

However, Watters seems to think Trump would make the most of his time in prison if convicted and jailed.

"Trump is going to come out with a prison body," he said during an episode of Jesse Watters Primetime in response to Merchan's comments. "That's what happens when you go to prison; you work out, that's all there is to do."

Newsweek emailed Jesse Watters via Fox News and emailed a spokesperson for Trump for comment Tuesday.

People have been quick to mock Watters, as well as Trump, after the host's comment landed on X, formerly Twitter.

"Trump and prison body in the same sentence. Hilarious. That man has not worked out a day in his 77 years of life, why would he suddenly start now?" one person wrote.

Another X user shared an article from CNN about Trump's thoughts on exercise and added: "Trump famously has eschewed exercise ... The idea that the doughy lumpy noxious flatulence-heavy criminal defendant might emerge from prison with a hot body is galaxy-level delusional."

"So @JesseBWatters is admitting that Trump is guilty?" someone else asked.

Another X user added: "The slow descent from 'Trump did nothing wrong and if you try to prosecute him he'll win by a landslide' to 'Trump is gonna look so hot after prison' has been remarkable."

Ron Filipkowski—vocal Trump critic and editor-in-chief at the Meidas Touch—also weighed in, writing: "Tough to workout when you are curled up in a ball in your cell crying uncontrollably."

Others shared edited photos of the former president, with one picture portraying Trump with bulging muscles and another showing him looking sad in a prison cell.

However, not everyone has joked about the situation.

"Trump knows how to turn things around," one person wrote.

Monday marked the fourth week of the criminal hush money trial. Following an investigation by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's office, Trump was indicted in March 2023 on 34 charges of falsifying business records relating to hush money payments that were allegedly made to adult film star Stormy Daniels during his 2016 presidential campaign.

Despite Trump's legal troubles, which include three other criminal indictments—all of which he has pleaded not guilty to—it remains a tight race in the polls between the former president and his likely challenger in November, Democratic incumbent President Joe Biden.