The right wing is revolting over the party’s body-shaming of Illinois’s governor.
The official GOP X account used Valentine’s Day as an opportunity to lob shots at the billionaire Democrat JB Pritzker’s weight. In a post on X, the GOP shared an AI-generated Valentine depicting Pritzker wearing a bib and gorging on a jumbo-sized bucket of chicken, a double-decker cheeseburger, meatballs, a root beer float, and more.
“My love for you is bigger than JB Pritzker,” it reads.
That didn’t sit well with some within the GOP’s ranks.
“This never would have gone out when I was running the RNC comms shop,” Douglas Heye, a GOP operative and communications specialist, wrote on X. “Reveling in unprofessionalism.”
“I still consider myself a Republican but this disgraceful, juvenile garbage, along with the personality cult and anti constitutional enthusiasm for rule by executive decree makes it harder every day,” wrote former Marco Rubio staffer Gregg Nunziata.
The GOP’s fat-shaming stance is a page out of President Donald Trump’s own playbook—especially when it comes to the Democratic governor. In November, Trump, who weighs 224 lbs., turned the traditional White House turkey pardon into a bizarre campaign-style rant in which he ridiculed Pritzker as a “big fat slob.”
The president was hosting guests and members of his team in the Rose Garden when he complained that he would not tell the Pritzker joke because talking about the governor made him angry.
“Some speech writer wrote some joke about his weight, but I would never want to talk about his weight. I don’t talk about people being fat,” Trump said. “I refuse to talk about the fact that he’s a fat slob. I don’t mention it.”
In August, Trump also told reporters of Pritzker: “He ought to spend more time at the gym, actually. The guy is a disaster.”
Earlier that month, he also touched on speculation that the Democrat firebrand could run for president in 2028, saying, “I notice he lost a little weight, so maybe he has a chance, you know?”
In turn, the often self-deprecating Pritzker replied by posting on X, “Donald, thanks for the compliment! Let’s not lie to the public, you and I both know you have no authority to take over Chicago. By the way, where are the Epstein files?”
Pritzker, who has undergone significant weight loss in recent years, isn’t one to shy away from Trump’s attacks. The billionaire scion has strongly criticized many of Trump’s policies, including his deportation campaign, which has often placed him directly in Trump’s crosshairs.
In October, he reportedly told a group of teachers that “Donald Trump and his cronies can f–k all the way off.”
Trump’s own notoriously unhealthy diet has been well documented. Corey Lewandowski, a top DHS adviser who was once a campaign adviser to Trump, revealed in 2017 that the then-71-year-old president’s McDonald’s order included “two Big Macs, two Filet-O-Fish, and a chocolate malted,” a haul totaling a whopping 2,400 calories.
The Daily Beast has reached out to Pritzker’s office for comment.
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