Five days before Donald Trump will be sworn in as the most powerful man on the planet — one who will make decisions on who gets health care, who comes through our borders, how much the government chomps from our bank accounts and whether we will look the other way when Russia does things it shouldn’t — he again found time to rip an actor on Twitter for making fun of him.
Someone should tell him it won’t stop. He needs to get used to it, because it comes with the job. A president needs a thicker skin than what we’re seeing right now.
Alec Baldwin again appeared on “SNL” last weekend, making fun of Trump’s Wednesday press conference, during which things got weird over the allegations that Russia has dirt on him from a previous visit (including information about some alleged bizarre interactions with prostitutes, which Trump has denied).
Trump — as has been his pattern since Baldwin launched the character during last year’s election — fired back at the actor, who has promised to stop if Trump releases his tax returns.
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“.@NBCNews is bad but Saturday Night Live is the worst of NBC,” Trump tweeted around 6 p.m. Sunday. “Not funny, cast is terrible, always a complete hit job. Really bad television!”
.@NBCNews is bad but Saturday Night Live is the worst of NBC. Not funny, cast is terrible, always a complete hit job. Really bad television!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 15, 2017
Nevermind that Trump has hosted the show twice, the last being Oct. 3, 2015. At the time, some said the appearance was giving Trump an advantage in the election.
He tweeted that week, “They are saying that tickets to tonight’s ‘Saturday Night Live’ are the hardest to get in the history of this great show! Off to a good start!”
Apparently, “SNL” has gone from “great” to “really bad television” in just over a year.
On Dec. 3, Trump didn’t wait until after the show to respond to Baldwin’s performance, which showed him tweeting teens instead of paying attention to a security briefing.
“Just tried watching ‘Saturday Night Live’ — unwatchable,” he wrote, after midnight. “Totally biased, not funny and the Baldwin impersonation just can’t get any worse. Sad.”
Someone needs to tell him he has better things to do. Someone needs to tell him that, as of Friday, he has a real boss for the first time in perhaps his entire adult life: the American people. He needs to lead and prioritize and be above the jokes. Like the smarmy kids they are at “SNL,” the more he reacts, the more they’re going to pour it on.
This is not a partisan issue: Republicans and Democrats alike should be worried about how much time soon-to-be President Trump spends simmering over being made into comedy material. He’s about to take the most serious job on the planet, which requires a serious person.
Though obviously a left-leaning show, “SNL” didn’t spare Jimmy Carter (though, to be fair, Dan Aykroyd’s impersonation was much more gentle). And it certainly didn’t spare Bill Clinton (a skit featuring the late Phil Hartman playing a wide-eyed Clinton practically slobbering on himself while state troopers paraded women in front of him will forever be engrained in my brain). Yet the only time I remember the temperamental Clinton, who has an ego bigger than the National Mall, responding to “SNL” was early in his first term, when he angrily told producers his daughter Chelsea (whom they portrayed as a semi-dumb, goofy-looking nerd of a 12-year-old) was off-limits. Otherwise, he took it all pretty well. As did the three presidents following him. As did the ones preceding him, at least publicly.
It’s satire. It’s protected speech. The fairness factor is debatable, but sometimes when things aren’t so great around this country, it’s welcomed speech. The president-elect needs to lighten up about being the target of comedians and get serious about governing this country. He’s about to have a lot more to worry about than “Saturday Night Live.”
