Review: Our Cartoon President “Media Strategy”

Who needs who more, the media or Donald Trump?

Overview (Spoilers):

Trump’s war on the “fake news” gets out of hand.  The episode starts with the president spitting outrageous lies; the sad part is it is hard to separate the truth from fiction.  Regardless, Trump takes a tip from North Korea who brutally murders any media that speaks out against their leader.  Unfortunately, he can’t just slaughter those that disagree with his ways, but he manages to purge the White House media guest to strictly those that appreciate his methods.

Meanwhile, Melania’s emotions are starting to show on her face, and her continuous eye rolls are getting her husband in trouble.  They enlist the help of Sarah Huckabee Sanders to train Melania to “kill her face.”  Through a series of drastic methods eventually, Melania becomes so apathetic about anything the president says fails to phase her.

By the conclusion of the episode, both characters discover that this is not what they wanted.  It is up to Trump to take such drastic matters that it will solve both of their issues.  The president does the unthinkable and announces that he is releasing his tax returns.

Our Take:

This episode did an excellent job of capturing Trump’s delusional self-appreciation.  My favorite line “I always do too good of a job,” really enveloped the whole plot of the show.  The outrageous lies that Trump shamelessly speaks is far too close to reality for any bodies comfort.  Like I mentioned it was difficult to separate the truth from fiction.  When the cartoon Trump says that the bones of the fake media would make great furniture, it sounds like something a real-world Trump could actually say.

I’m glad they touched on Melania Trump finally and how difficult keeping a straight face must be for her.  The poor lady is in the center of it all.  Unlike the natural connection between Trump and a typical cartoon father, Melania does not fit so neatly.  With so little character that the real first lady offers it must be tough to write her as such a prominent player in this series.  Making her see through her husband’s bullshit is what we all imagine she is going through.

The positives stop there.  The episode has fallen into the same trap that many of the others have so far: there isn’t much originality.  Kudos to the series for staying as relevant as possible, but when I say something like “it’s tough to separate truth and fiction,” that’s not a good thing.  Every episode I watch I hope that they take things further and put Trump’s actions in an outrageous situation.  Unfortunately, it invariably turns into 22-minutes of a straightforward commentary on the president’s character.  They could do so much more like actually send America and North Korea to war- now that would be a crazy episode.  The political humor is just barely keeping this series alive right now.