45th United States President and business tycoon Donald Trump has been finding himself in a very difficult and tricky situation this past few weeks. By now, most of you have likely heard that Trump’s personal attorney/Nosferatu cosplayer Rudy Giuliani has been under investigation for having helped in a money laundering scheme involving two men from Ukraine, who were arrested after being found with suspicious one-way plane tickets to Ukraine at a New York airport. The two men, according to Trump, are people he had never met before, however photographs of these Men with Giuliani, Donald Trump Jr, and even with Trump and Vice President Mike Pence have surfaced, with some of these photographs being discovered on the Facebook accounts of the two Ukrainian men. The amount of money funneled is said to be between $300,000-$400,000 US.
Someone with inside information from the Whitehouse has seemingly been giving detrimental bits of information regarding illegal and shady business deals, that could even result in impeachment. The media has been eating this story up, and Trump is locked in an infamous feud with them that seems to be ongoing. “Fake News” is one of those phrases he’s liked to use a lot before, but he’s seemingly shifted towards a new saying which he prefers, “Corrupt Media.”
The story has gained international attention and is just one of a number of things that has been speculated to become the downfall of Trump and the thing that begins his impeachment. Late night television is something that Trump isn’t a fan of either, and the comedians hosting those shows are no stranger to that. John Oliver of HBO’s Last Week Tonight has been referring to this incident and the Russian hack of the 2016 election as “Stupid Watergate” an obvious reference to the Watergate scandal that saw former US President Richard Nixon on the verge of impeachment, until he resigned. As Oliver describes, Stupid Watergate has all the potential ramifications and consequences of Watergate, but basically everyone involved is stupid, hence the name Stupid Watergate.
Saturday Night Live kicked off their 45th Season making references to this, and it’s been the topic of discussion, with the often politically centered Cold Opening sketches having had actor Alec Baldwin returning to his mock oval office and toupee with his hilarious impression of Donald Trump. In the premiere, they mocked Rudy Giuliani’s involvement, with Giuliani appearing on CNN discussing sensitive information with Trump over the phone while live on air, and then William Barr and Trump discussing the situation, and even Kim Jog Un, asking for advice. They even Mocked Kanye West, who is a notorious fan of Trump, and showed him with the “Black Wack Adoos Club” alongside Don King with him leaving Trump’s side, due to the impeachment, and to see Terrence Howard on the roof with an umbrella attempting to “Disprove Gravity.” The next week, Ferris Bueller actor Mathew Broderick appeared as Mike Pompeo to discuss the impeachment situation with Mike Pence.
Trump of course is not happy with the portrayal and as per usual is quick to take to twitter and criticize them and anyone who seems to have anything critical to say about him. If he does get impeached, then being the butt of a few comic’s jokes may be the least of his concerns. There are seemingly two whistle blowers at play here, and Trump is desperate to find the traitors who have been spilling secrets or lies. I’ll leave it up to you to decide what’s real and what’s not, as anything political is something to be taken with a large grain of salt.
Not only that, but Trump has also been online publicly asking for the assistance of China and Ukraine to investigate Hunter Biden, the son of former Vice President and Democratic Party frontrunner Joe Biden who Trump has also asked for an investigation into. Initially, the whistleblower had mentioned a phone call that took place in July of this year where Trump had called the Prime Minister of Ukraine to ask for assistance in investigating Biden. He requested that the PM discuss the matters with Rudy Giuliani and William Barr.
The events were later confirmed by a transcript of the phone call released by the Whitehouse, although it was non-verbatim, so not word for word, summarizing what was said. Since them, it’s been defensive comment after defensive comment. Trump had this to say about the initial phone call:
“We don't want our people like Vice President Biden and his son [contributing] to the corruption already in the Ukraine.”
While it’s unknown how long it could take for the events to snowball into an impeachment hearing, this is just one of many scandals that the president has been seemingly caught in the middle of. Whether he’s guilty or not, an investigation will likely take place to see what exactly has taken place, and though things have looked like the would end badly for the President in the Past, now he’s probably going to be in more hot water than before. Whether or not he ends up being impeached, resigning or being beaten in the upcoming election remains to be seen. Until then, he’s once again front and center on the world’s stage, waiting for the next attack on him.