Pop culture plays a huge role in how we think about politicians. From songs to television shows and everything in-between, our opinions are shaped greatly by these medias. Donald Trump has bore the brunt of pop culture’s wrath. Even before Trump ran for office, he was a huge hit in realm of pop culture. For example, he was the guest of honor on a Comedy Central Roast and was also “stone cold stunned” in a special round of WWE. So now it is no surprise that he is still a very prominent face in pop culture. Nearly everyone is trying to take a shot at Trump, but I thought the best representation of Trump in pop culture, was in Saturday Night Live.
Saturday Night Live has made fun of Donald Trump literally once a week for the past year or so, so I tried to pick a skit from them that encompassed everything they were trying to say about him. The image that SNL (Saturday Night Live) was trying to portray of Trump is someone who has no idea what they're doing, someone who is just a puppet, and someone who has a very fragile ego. Each person who came in to speak with Trump would say something about the promises he made, and he would freak out because of how big the promises really were. At one point, he tries to google, “What is ISIS?”. This is an attempt to show that Trump has no idea what he is doing in the middle east and no comprehension of foreign policy in general. SNL also wants Trump to look like a puppet. During his meeting with Pence in the skit, Trump needed reassurance that Pence would do all the work for him. Finally they portray Trump as egotistical because he needs confirmation from Twitter about his cabinet nominations as well as isn't willing to even really hold a meeting with Mitt Romney.
This portrayal goes against almost everything Trump wants you to think of him. He wants to be seen as the man with plan who knows how to solve problems. Trump wants to be seen as a confident mans man who has been successful at all phases of life. By going after his intelligence, ego, and ability to lead, SNL is affectively altering the way people think about Trump. Obviously staunch Trump supporters don’t care about what SNL and Alec Baldwin have to say, but when it comes to people in the middle ground, these satirical critiques are just planted in people’s head and they will begin to look for them in real life. Most importantly, it has started to affect Trump himself. He has spoken out recently against SNL. That just shows that they have gotten under his skin and since then, SNL has amped up the satirical onslaught.
Dan, first off I'm glad you picked the best Alec Baldwin-Trump skit from SNL to make this read even more enjoyable. I agree with your concluding statements regarding Trump. He does want people to think he is the one who has the answers, and Saturday Night Live did a great job of altering many peoples' perceptions of him through this series of skits. Great blog post!
Dan, first off I'm glad you picked the best Alec Baldwin-Trump skit from SNL to make this read even more enjoyable. I agree with your concluding statements regarding Trump. He does want people to think he is the one who has the answers, and Saturday Night Live did a great job of altering many peoples' perceptions of him through this series of skits. Great blog post!
ReplyDelete