Saturday Night Live may be staffed by a bunch of whiny, snowflake losers, but gosh darnit, those snowflakes can be mean. For that reason, according to The Daily Beast, former President Donald Trump reportedly asked the Department of Justice and Federal Communications Commission to make SNL stop teasing him.
Like so much of his presidency, the brouhaha began on Twitter. After watching an SNL rerun in March 2019, the President tweeted, “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.’ Like an advertisement without consequences. Same with Late Night Shows. Should Federal Election Commission and/or FCC look into this?”
Well, we’ve now learned that Trump thought the answer was ‘yes.’ As The Daily Beast reports, Trump called on the DOJ and FCC to “probe or mitigate SNL, Jimmy Kimmel, and other late-night comedy mischief-makers.”
The actions didn’t get very far, with one source saying, “It was more annoying than alarming, to be honest with you.” But it did presage the President’s attempts to interfere on more important matters. As the New York Times has reported, he used the Justice Department to try and overturn the results of the 2020 election, as well as subpoenaing Apple records for prominent Democrats.
In the aftermath of the January 6th Capitol insurrection, Trump was booted from most social media platforms. The Twitter ban is permanent, though the Facebook ban is set to expire in January 2023 — right when the 2024 election kicks into high gear. Still, lots could change between now and then, especially after Amazon’s $8.45 billion acquisition of MGM, which means that the fabled racist The Apprentice tapes are now owned by Jeff Bezos.
