Trump is currently threatening to defund the television channel PBS, which may or may not be because the station's most popular and longest running show Sesame Street has been mocking him long before he was President of the United States.
Using the character 'Ronald Grump', the show has been poking fun at Trump's television hosting personality, building empire, and political affiliations as far back as 1988.
And I don't mean "grouch" in the typical sense. In Sesame Street, grouches are "unpleasant monsters who base their culture and economy around garbage," so the insult is actually significantly more layered than it would first appear.
The episode aired only a couple of years after the original Trump Tower in NYC went up.
"Grump’s the name," the character introduces himself. "Ronald Grump. I’m a builder."
Although Oscar and the other locals really don't want the tower (which is made of stacked cans) there in the first place, Grump convinces Oscar to unwillingly sign a contract.
The episode goes on to portray Ronald Grump kicking out tenants for having pets and treating citizens of lower economic status like trash.
This time, the show got particularly political, citing that the episode would be about "Real estate tycoon Ronald Grump announcing plans to demolish Sesame Street and create a lavish new Grump Tower."
In 2005, almost a decade later, the character returns with even less subtlety as as 'Donald Grump', who has an orange wig and states "I’m the trashiest, I’m the grouchiest Grump."
Unfortunately, in 2019 show runner Lizzie Fishman told The Washington Post that we've likely seen the last of Grump on Sesame Street.
"It’s been over ten years since we featured the Donald Grump character and we have no plans to bring him back," she wrote.
"We’ve parodied many pop culture icons and television shows such as Game of Thrones, Law & Order, and the Voice," she continued, "As well a range of news organizations including CNN and Fox News, and newsmen Walter Cronkite, Dan Rather, and Bill O’Reilly."
We have to admit, the resemblance between Donald Trump and Ronald Grump is pretty uncanny.
h/t: Business Insider
