Thanks to a recent “Saturday Night Live” cold open featuring Alec Baldwin as Donald Trump, we can all now picture the president lying in the White House's Lincoln Bedroom, eating hamburgers as he watches his favorite news programs. In the skit, Baldwin-as-Trump gleefully cheered on the “Fox and Friends” co-hosts for their excessive flattery about his State of the Union Address and accepted their assurances that he was the greatest president ever.
While satirical, SNL’s fictional scene may not be far from the truth. Indeed, it’s not hard to imagine the real Trump lying in bed watching TV, muttering “fake news” while surrounded by sections of The New York Times and The Washington Post. Trump’s disdain for the “enemies of the people” — as he has consistently labeled news outlets — is well established. And his attempts to limit unflattering stories and push fake news are unlike any America’s ever seen. He has asked via Twitter “Why isn’t the Senate Intel Committee looking into the Fake News Networks,” and continuously obfuscated reality through exaggerations and misleading statements. His administration, in the memorable line of the White House Counselor Kellyanne Conway, is in the business of “alternative facts.”
In the tradition of many supreme leaders — from fictional emperors in “Star Wars” to the real Joseph Stalin in the Soviet Union or Mao Zedong in China — Trump sees himself as the center of everything and equates love of country with love for himself. The president emphasized this in Cincinnati, Ohio, on Feb. 5, as he described the Democrats’ icy reaction to his State of the Union as “treasonous.”
Source : nbcnews
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