Trumpty Dumpty has an eggshell thin ego. Nothing other than non stop fawning devotion does it for him. Let Bess Levin at Vanity Fair set the story up, she does it so well.
One of the defining features of Donald Trump, besides his creepy obsession with his eldest daughter and inability to ever tell the truth, is that he has the thinnest skin of any mammal on earth. (Yes, biologists, even thinner than the African spiny mouse!) The human embodiment of the phrase “can‘t take a joke,” this is a man who ran for president because Barack Obama teased him at the White House Correspondents’ dinner, an event known for its roasts. Later, as leader of the free world, he flew off the handle after Meryl Streep said she was unhappy about him mocking a disabled reporter; he angrily tweeted that the Oscar-winning actress was “overrated” and “a Hillary flunky who lost big.” He threw a hissy fit and canceled his trip to Denmark after he was informed that he couldn’t buy Greenland, claiming it was “nasty” for the prime minister to call the idea of him buying the place “absurd,” which it quite obviously was. Last fall, he threatened to withhold the COVID-19 vaccine from New Yorkers because Andrew Cuomo was supposedly mean to him.
Another thing we know about Trump is that during his time in office, he never once hesitated to use the full weight of the federal government to go after his enemies, and so really, it’s in no way surprising to learn that he tried to use the Department of Justice—among other agencies—to get various late-night shows, including Saturday Night Live, to stop making fun of him.
WAAAAAAHHHHH!! They’re making fun of me!! I’m only 70 and they expect me to be an adult. WAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!!
“It’s truly incredible that shows like Saturday Night Live, not funny/no talent, can spend all of their time knocking the same person (me), over & over, without so much of a mention of ‘the other side,’” Trump tweeted, long before he was banned from Twitter for inspiring a violent mob. “Like an advertisement without consequences. Same with Late Night Shows. Should Federal Election Commission and/or FCC look into this?”
It was, on its face, a ridiculous question and threat, as SNL is obviously satire, and therefore a form of protected speech in America that pissed-off commanders-in-chief have no authority to directly subvert. However, then-President Trump went further than simply tweeting his displeasure with the late-night comedians and SNL writers’ room. The internal discussions that followed, between the former leader of the free world and some of his political and legal advisers, once again underscored just how much Trump wanted to use the full weight and power of the U.S. government to punish his personal enemies.
According to two people familiar with the matter, Trump asked advisers and lawyers in early 2019 about what the Federal Communications Commission, the court system, and—most confusingly to some Trump lieutenants—the Department of Justice could do to probe or mitigate SNL, Jimmy Kimmel, and other late-night comedy mischief-makers.
To those who heard it, Trump’s inquiries into what federal regulations could be used to bust the likes of Kimmel and SNL were more nuisance than constitutional crisis. “It was more annoying than alarming, to be honest with you,” one of these sources recalled. However, the conversations further showed, in the pettiest of ways, how the 45th U.S. president was keen on turning the country’s top law enforcers into something more akin to his own personally retained law firm.
So then the dummy released this today and it’s been gleaned from this mish mash, and what he tweeted earlier about the FEC and FCC, that Trump is alluding to the fairness doctrine or equal time rule. Or something.
Trump releases a statement denying he asked his DOJ to go after SNL. He then concludes the statement with "2024 or before!" — a nod toward the idea he could be reinstated (He cannot be reinstated) pic.twitter.com/C9NAytESCO
— Allan Smith (@akarl_smith) June 22, 2021
In his 2019 quest to crack down on the comedians, he seems to have confused the FCC rules he was invoking in fury, explains Paul Matzko, a scholar on technology policy at the Cato Institute.
The “equal time” rule refers to a specific FCC that wouldn’t apply to SNL. “Equal time meant that if a radio or TV station offered time to one political candidate they had to offer comparable time on the same terms to an opposing candidate,” later broadened to “not only to candidates themselves and their campaigns directly but any kind of allied group,” says Matzko.
Instead, Matzko says Trump is likely confusing the equal time rule with the “fairness doctrine,” a practice that demanded that broadcasters provide “fair and balanced” coverage of controversial issues of public importance. The FCC, however, stopped enforcing the doctrine in 1987 and formally revoked it in 2011.
Clueless as always. And he actually is making noises like he could be back in office, miraculously. Ask Mike Pence to come over with a unicorn and some fairy dust. Maybe he can make it happen. Oh, that’s right, you don’t like Mike anymore. Never mind.
I know it probably will not happen, but we need the Fairness Doctrine back, along with the rule(s) that kept one corporation or entity from owning more than one radio or TV station in any area or market. We also need a new Truth in Media law, that forbids broadcasting or spreading lies and disinformation, and punishes those who break that law with six figure fines, and double digit jail sentences for each instance. This law would apply to radio, TV, social media web sites, and any other form of media.
Naah. We need concentration camps and gas chambers. Get REAL!
That man isn’t smart enough to come in out of the rain, yet he has all of these followers who can’t see that? I pray for all of them, they obviously need it.
Fuck him & the 74million fascists who support him.
When he is finally dragged screaming into a prison cell, I want to be there to turn the key in the lock. It would be so much fun!!