A pencil drawing of Donald Trump emerges from the white void. He is fully dressed, in his trademark suit and red crotch cloth (his tie), though, given what the film-makers are going for here, I feel as if he should be wearing nothing but a short belly top, like Winnie-the-Pooh.
Indeed, we learn over the course of the 40-second animation retweeted by the president that Trump, flickering in and out of pencilled reality like an alt-right Morten Harket, is a lovable and inspiring savant.
Uplifting piano and strings play as he says inspiring things. The film- makers should get credit for finding them, really, amid the bizarre non sequiturs, coded bigotry, uncoded bigotry and glitching computer code that usually erupts from his puckered beak (lips) or his digital hindparts (Twitter).
YES YES YES YES YES!!!!! pic.twitter.com/Lk3iIl7kEb
— IDG (@Richard06327523) October 1, 2019
“Treat the word ‘impossible’ as nothing more than motivation,” says the American president eyeing up the United States’ democratic norms.
“Relish the opportunity to be an outsider, because it’s the outsiders who change the world and who make a real and lasting difference,” says the wealthy president of the most powerful country in the world.
“The more that a broken system tells you that you’re wrong, the more certain you should be that you must keep pushing ahead, you must keep pushing forward,” says the president facing possible impeachment for enlisting a foreign power to undermine a domestic political rival.
“Grab ’em by the pussy,” says the president (though not in this video).
“Go back where you came from,” says the president (though not in this video).
“[A devastatingly inhuman shriek of pleasure, pain and petulance echoing around an empty godless universe],” says the president (though not in this video).
I imagine the latter quotes will be in the sequel. It’s not as if his base cares about such things.
Through it all he plays with an army man's hat. He dances, swaying from side to side like a sexy pile of cheese. The disembodied arm of Jimmy Fallon ruffles his hair. (Fallon's arm has been withered and immobile ever since.) He stands on a stage before a sea of red-hats, ready to point at any moment in the direction of an enemy and utter a devastating command. He clumsily hugs the American flag.
Some wags have said this piece of animation should be soundtracked by A-ha's Take on Me. But I feel it might be better soundtracked with Marvin Gaye's Let's Get It On – or possibly just people crying. Yeah, I can guess what he does to that flag when the camera pans away.
These are also all minor faux pas the president has been criticised for, here reappropriated as propaganda. It’s a useful reminder of how pointless ridiculing Trump is despite how necessarily cathartic it might be. (Please don’t take that away from me.)
I mean, you can point out what a Lovecraftian hell beast Trump is until the irradiated cows come home from his far-away sex farm (Trump Tower), but those who love him will still see a big cuddly teddy bear leading the United States on and on, twirling, flailing, fitting and screaming into nonsensical glory.
