If Donald Trump were sad, it would be okay. It would make sense, given his historically low approval ratings and the humbling defeat he was dealt last week upon the failure of his Obamacare repeal. (He never got around to the whole “replacement” part.) If he were feeling—as another Monday away from Mar-A-Lago rolls around, and he remains trapped far from the self-reinforcing adoration of his rally crowds—somewhat emo, that would make sense.
But of course, emo—at least the version of the term used most readily as a punchline—is not just about being sad. It’s about whining about how unfair the world is. It’s a feeling of entitlement, that you’re being unfairly maligned by parents and other dickheads who don’t understand you. It’s the feeling that the world is conspiring against you. And in that sense, Donald Trump is extremely emo right now. His entire personal brand these days, when not being “presidential” and reading off a teleprompter, is to whinge about the media and the Democrats and even the Republicans who are not helping him do what he wants.
This latest Emo Trump video from Super Deluxe tackles the all-important “acoustic sing-along” page of the early-’00s mall-emo playbook. It is, as before, a spot-on parody of the style, even matching the sneering pronunciation that turns words like “not” into “NYOT” and the abrupt left turns into shout-alongs about how unfair and unfeeling the greater world is. Somewhere right now Donald Trump is absent-mindedly gazing into the middle distance during a boring foreign policy meeting, and this song is playing in his head. Hang in there, fella—things get a little easier in your late 70s.