As we’ve previously reported, Donald Trump is set to host Saturday Night Live on November 7, presumably in hopes of getting people who have stuck with The Californians for all these years to get on board with something equally unbearable. However, a petition on MoveOn.org is collecting signatures from people who think NBC is “excusing and even validating” Trump’s uniquely classy brand of racism by allowing him onto the show. The petition says that NBC’s decision to let Trump host is “shameful” and that it seems to show that the network “doesn’t care about its Latino and pro-immigrant viewers.” It also points out that it was only a few months ago that NBC completely washed its hands of the Annoying Orange, so this is a surprisingly quick turnaround for the network. The petition currently has over 124,950 signatures, with no official comment yet from NBC.
As for Trump, though, he’s not worried about this. As reported by Deadline, he appeared on Fox & Friends today to talk about how his ego is too powerful to be concerned with a hundred thousand signatures. Trump explained that the only way NBC would agree to drop him from SNL would be if it wants “to do the show with one-third the ratings,” adding that he thinks “Lorne Michaels is a very smart guy” and that “NBC are very smart people.” The implication there seems to be that he thinks they won’t be foolish enough to turn their backs on the inevitably huge ratings that Trump’s episode will get, simply because he sometimes says things that are terrible.
On a related note, Trump also pointed out in his Fox & Friends interview that he actually has a very good relationship with Hispanic voters, claiming that he’s “leading in the polls with the Hispanics.” Also, he knows that “they” like him because he has “thousands of Hispanics” that work for him. Nope, nothing off-putting about that.