At this point, it feels futile to attempt to engage with the president in constructive ways. Trump is a man who responded to the life-threatening devastation of Hurricane Maria by victim blaming the citizens of Puerto Rico and calling the San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz a bad leader. And he did this all from the comfort of his golf club in New Jersey.
In response, during SNL's Weekend Update, the correspondent Michael Che launched a rant at Trump, and he wasted no euphemisms on the president.
://twitter.com/mattwilstein/status/914345485401341
During his short and to-the-point rant, Che condemned Trump for attacking and demonizing Mayor Cruz after she asked for help. He also noted the evidence of bias in how differently Trump has responded to U.S. Hurricane victims in Houston and Florida, and U.S. hurricane victims in Puerto Rico.
He said:
"Oh really, Donald? You bitch. Was she nasty to you? How nasty? Are you shaking? Do you want to smoke a Virginia Slim until your hand stops moving?This isn’t a complicated issue, man, it’s hurricane relief. You just did this very same thing for white people, twice. So, tell Melania to put on her flood heels, get some bottled water, some food, pack up some extra Atlanta Falcons Super Bowl T-shirts and write them a check with our money, you cheap cracker! In one month you have mishandled Puerto Rico, DACA, the NFL. It’s like when anybody darker than your golf pants has a problem you’re thinking, how can I make this worse?!"
Given the danger of Trump's apathy towards Puerto Rico, and the fact that people's actual lives are on the line, Che's use of language seems like the last concern people should have.
And yet, unsurprisingly, some people on Twitter didn't take too kindly to the rant. They also didn't seem to understand context of words?! The word cracker has no root in white people being oppressed, in fact it's rooted in white people being the oppressors.
For the most part, however, people were here for the takedown.
Still, others on Twitter pointed out the fact that SNL hosted Donald Trump back in 2015, and therefore contributed to normalizing his racism and public persona.
Regardless of how you feel about this segment, one thing is for sure, it got people talking.