Just a week after Donald Trump failed to immediately reject the former grand wizard of the Ku Klux Klan's endorsement, "Saturday Night Live" hit him with a perfect political ad.
Trump has been criticized constantly for his rhetoric and bullying. Maureen Dowd of The New York Times, for example, wrote:
"Trump wants to be seen as Ronald Reagan but often he's more like Pat Buchanan, playing to the crowd's prejudices just to hear the bloodthirsty roar, evoking memories of Molly Ivins's observation about Buchanan's 1992 culture wars speech, that it was translated from the original German.
Trump, who was slow to disavow David Duke and the Klan, stokes the gladiatorial fever, leading to minorities being roughed up and the press being bullied."
The "SNL" video shows the people who support Trump support him as the candidate who mocks those who don't agree with him. He is also the candidate who divides and denigrates people by their appearance and, in a troublingly effective way, race. Trump's name has been used to bully minorities; a high school basketball team in Perry, Iowa, played another high school team that chanted "Trump" at Latino players as an intimidation tactic. Trump rally attenders pushed and shouted at a young black woman as she tried to leave the event. And early on in the race, before people started to realize he had a real shot at winning and still thought of him as a joke, Trump used the term "anchor baby" to label children of undocumented immigrants.
Despite the trail of racism that follows him, Trump has the most victories in the Republican race so far, and his supporters are everyday, run-of-the-mill people. So "SNL" shows that. Cast members perform ordinary tasks in the parody political ad that aired on March 5 that slowly escalate into actions of white supremacy. The short opens with positive, rallying music and a voice-over saying, "The media's been saying some pretty negative things about Donald Trump. But what are real Americans saying?"
The “real Americans” talk about Trump’s good qualities from an office, while ironing, and carrying wood. The camera then zooms out to reveal a cork board covered in string and papers and the word “MUSLIMS”; the woman ironing flips the white fabric to show a Ku Klux Klan hooded uniform; and the lumberjack walks over toward a burning cross, cradling his freshly chopped logs. The camera unfocuses, and the voice-over ends the video by saying, “A message from Racists for Donald Trump.”
“SNL” also parodied Trump’s conference with New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie standing by his side:
“Everyone loves me,” “Trump” says. “Racists, ugly racists, people who didn’t even know they were racist.”
Photo via Saturday Night Live/Youtube
And, most impressively, Bobby Moynihan absolutely nailed the fear in Christie's eyes.
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