Starting with the SNL cold open Dec. 15: “It’s a Wonderful Trump,” there have been several examples this week of how tied to TV our president is.
I don’t know exactly which dig touched Donald’s not-funny bone: Maybe it was imaging Melania divorced and speaking perfect English because Trump had been holding back her language skills. Or the repeated “Everyone is better off without me being president.”
Whatever it was, the president was pissed. And he threatened legal action in a post-SNL tweet:
It was a ridiculous tweet, but let’s not so easily let go of the fact that Trump thinks he should have some legal recourse for this SNL segment, and also sees some vast conspiracy, tying an NBC comedy show to news coverage.
Was the SNL bit harsh? Sure. Was it illegal? Hell, no. Not even close. The whole bit was so over the top nobody would this in was asserting actual facts. And even if the criticism of the president was over-the-top, it was totally fair. Americans get to be critical of their leaders—as Donald was of President Obama not that long ago.
And, honestly, I didn’t find any of the criticism to be all that extreme. Ever since his party lost control of the House, President Trump’s administration seems to be lurching, leaderless and falling apart. We seem to be entering a new a sinister time.
And the president’s relationship with TV is a huge part of the problem. Not one week after his odd, inappropriate and, frankly, un-American reaction to the SNL skit, Trump was at it again in a more serious way.
At the end of the week, the House and Senate passed temporary funding bills. The President spent the week sending mixed messages about whether he might sign the bill, based on whether money for his favorite bad idea—the Trump Tolerance Monument known as The Wall—was included.
It looked on Thursday like he would accept it. After all, it wasn’t that long ago that Mexico was going to fund the TTM, was it? But then, Fox News and Rush Limbaugh intervened.
And Trump blinked, decided to go ahead with a shutdown. Colbert sums up the flip flop:
What is the end game? I don’t know, but I am not filled with confidence. The adult rats are all busily scurrying from the Trump Titanic presidency—and, meanwhile, President Trump is taking his cues and advice from “Fox and Friends.”
Republicans in the Senate, especially from Iowa—do you not see this? Ernst, Grassley, is this presidential leadership?
We’ve hit a wall here. And it’s a wall partly built on an odd, inconsistent president who is easily manipulated by the boob tube: President TV Trump.
