Saturday Night Live recently had a spoof of Donald Trump trying to get his presidency going, and actor Alec Baldwin, as usual, did an excellent job of portraying Trump himself in the skit, which showed Trump displaying his ignorance of how government actually works, thanking Mike Pence for doing the real work of the campaign and generally being childish and ridiculous. Although making fun of whoever is the president is what Saturday Night Live does, and presidents since the 1970s have generally been able to deal with it, Trump was not amused. He tweeted that he found the show “one-sided” and that he wanted equal time for his political movement.
Baldwin responded with a vengeance. In a series of tweets, he explained to Trump that the campaign is over, and it’s time for Trump to actually do some work and to start delivering on his many campaign promises. He went on to give Trump some advice on what to do as president, which included fighting for freedom rather than oil, creating jobs domestically, and helping train American workers for the new economy. He ended, humorously but also seriously, by saying that he could go on with more advice and that Trump can contact him at Saturday Night Live if he wants to hear it.
One of Baldwin’s tweets was a reference to Trump’s recent appointments to his administration. Baldwin encouraged Trump to make decisions that “encouraged people, not generate fear and doubt.” Trump has recently appointed a known racist as his attorney general, a hater of Islam as his national security adviser and a conspiracy theorist as his senior adviser, and these are just a few of the appointments he has made that have caused fear and unease among minorities and the disadvantaged.
By lashing out against Saturday Night Live in his tweet, Trump was likely trying to distract the weekend news cycle from his controversial appointments. However, all he has really accomplished is – once again – showing how thin-skinned and unfit for the presidency he truly is. Alec Baldwin deserves credit for calling him out on his childishness and encouraging him to start doing the job that the American people elected him to do rather than whining about a comedy show on television.