The bald eagle is the symbol of this great nation, so naturally it has been the symbol of many political campaigns. The fearsome bird of prey has unwittingly shilled for candidates on the left and right sides of the aisle over the decades, and it has played a starring role in some choice moments in the current presidential bid of real estate mogul Donald Trump. Last December, for instance, Trump posed with and was promptly attacked by a bald eagle in a photo shoot for Time, a magazine that had named him as one of its People Of The Year. Just recently, apparently putting this betrayal behind him, Trump mentioned eagles during a press conference in reference to a question about renewable energy. Windmills, he said, are the enemies of the eagle:
You know if you shoot an eagle, kill an eagle, they want to put you in jail for five years. Yet the windmills are killing hundreds and hundreds of eagles. One of the most beautiful, one of the most treasured birds—and they’re killing them by the hundreds and nothing happens. So wind is, you know, it is a problem.
Trump’s up-and-down relationship with eagles has now become the subject of a minute-long mockumentary from Sunpoint Productions.
The video’s editor, Dominick Nero, is grateful for the nonstop parade of laughter provided by the 2016 campaign. As he tells The A.V. Club:
As a web political video editor, I’ve been stuck cutting Trump footage for the past five months or so. I am surprised that each time, though it’s torture to look at him, he continues to create spit-takes out of viewers. This time he compared the billions of humans suffering under the global energy crisis to the “hundreds” of eagles killed by windmills. Hundreds, not even thousands!! Maybe one day all of this will make sense, but until then, his reign over American pop culture will continue to create some of the best weird-web absurdist fodder that I’ve ever had the great satisfaction to edit. Thanks Trump!!
And he’s right. There’s something not only funny but deeply, cosmically satisfying about watching Trump get thwacked on the back of the head by an eagle.