‘This is the real Collusion!’ Trump slams SNL after skit on wall national emergency
President Trump went after one of his perennial targets (the TV network he calls “Fake News NBC”) on Sunday morning after a “Saturday Night Live” episode mocked his national emergency declaration.
“Nothing funny about tired Saturday Night Live on Fake News NBC! Question is, how do the Networks get away with these total Republican hit jobs without retribution?” the president asked in a Tweet.
Trump declared an emergency Friday after Democrats and Republicans in Congress failed to include the border wall funding levels he sought in a spending deal. That same dispute over his proposed U.S.-Mexico border wall funding led to the longest-ever government shutdown in December and January.
Alec Baldwin performed his signature Trump impersonation during the late-night’s show cold open, speaking from a pretend White House press conference and saying that “we have a tremendous amount of drugs flowing into the country from the southern border — or the brown line, as many people have asked me not to call it. That’s why we need wall. Because wall works. Wall makes safe.”
Actor Don Cheadle, who hosted Saturday’s show, also targeted the president by wearing a Russian hockey jersey with Trump’s name emblazoned on it, Fox News reports.
Trump suggested on Twitter that “SNL” isn’t the only program he thinks deserves more scrutiny, writing that “many other shows” are offenders as well.
“Very unfair and should be looked into,” Trump wrote. “This is the real Collusion!”
He followed up with an all-capital-letter exclamation.
Trump frequently targets the media (and ”SNL” in particular) on Twitter, often suggesting no one watches it — himself included. Trump has even called “SNL” a “hit job” in previous tweets.
In September, Trump went so far as to float the idea of revoking NBC’s “license,” the Hill reports.
“NBC FAKE NEWS, which is under intense scrutiny over their killing the Harvey Weinstein story, is now fumbling around making excuses for their probably highly unethical conduct,” Trump wrote on the social network. “I have long criticized NBC and their journalistic standards-worse than even CNN. Look at their license?”
Trump plans to use the national emergency declaration to funnel billions in federal funds into construction of a wall, taking that money from military construction and beyond.
Democrats and others have promised legal challenges in response to Trump’s move, which the president acknowledged in announcing the declaration.
“Sadly, we’ll be sued and sadly it will go through a process and happily we’ll win, I think,” said Trump, according to the Associated Press.
According to the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University’s law school, since the National Emergencies Act became law in 1976 presidents have declared a total of 58 emergencies — and 31 of those are ongoing to this day, McClatchy reported.
