A time to laugh
If he doesn’t collapse the economy, jail dissidents or start a nuclear winter, a Donald Trump presidency could be pretty funny.
Even his supporters concede Trump is swaggering braggart and bully who has used his inherited economic advantages to pummel his way through life, leaving countless innocent victims in his wake. On top of that, Trump regularly makes things up from thin air and constantly denies the truth. He also has absolutely no sense of humor, particularly about himself.
All of that is perfect for comedy, ripe for satire. More and more, when I see Trump or even think of Trump, I just laugh. It’s horribly sad that this man will be our president, I realize, but the truth is Trump is really funny, if unintentionally so.
For example, over the weekend incoming Vice President Mike “Little Mike” Pence attended a showing of the heralded musical “Hamilton” in New York City. Some audience members booed Pence. After the show, a cast member, joined onstage by other cast members, read a note to Pence asking that the incoming Trump administration protect both our planet and the rights of all people in our country.
Pence took it fairly well, but Trump, apparently not only our president-elect but our nation’s theater critic-elect, as usual went to his Twitter account. There, in a series of tweets, he insisted Pence had been harassed and called the cast “very rude.” Trump demanded an apology from the cast. He also took a dig at the play, tweeting, “‘Hamilton,’ which I hear is highly overrated.”
When I read that I had my first belly laugh, in, well, a week and a half. Thanks, President-Elect Comb-Over.
First, I have heard of no one saying “Hamilton” is highly overrated, but Trump is huge on this whole “I hear” thing. He works the “I hear” angle constantly, like a smarmy, overly made up, ninth-grade gossip queen. And, second, is this how Trump is going to function as president, responding to every slight of himself or those close to him with rhetorical kicks to the bodily region where he has said he likes to grab women?
Trump claims to be a Christian, but whenever anyone slaps him on the cheek, he not only doesn’t turn the other cheek, he tries to pound the offender into rhetorical oblivion with his little baby fists. And as pathetic as that is, it is kind of sadly funny from the person who is going to be the leader of the free world.
Previous management at this newspaper had asked that I eliminate the satire in this column, saying many people in the Imperial Valley and beyond simply didn’t get it. They even nixed a few columns. So for the last few years I mostly have been staying away from satire and such. But with this Trump guy soon to be our president, the temptation may just be too much.
Of course Trump has said he plans to close parts of the Internet and put new restrictions on First Amendment rights, particularly, we can assume, on criticism of one Donald J. Trump. It appears Jefferson Beauregard “Tiny Jeff” Sessions III, as his attorney general designate, will be his squad leader in that war on freedom of expression. That may mean critics of Trump will be shut down, by whatever means necessary.
Until that crackdown comes, or another great depression descends, or nuclear war hits, I’m just going to keep laughing at Donald Trump, because it’s pretty darn funny that this big orange windbag is going to be our next president.
And I have to laugh, because I just don’t want to cry.