Line #55 Series/ThePresidentShow


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/the_president_show.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:350:''"Ladies and gentlemen, the 45th ([[RunningGag and final]]) President of the United States!"'']]
3
4	->''"I'm the president! Can you believe it? Let's roll!"''
5
6	''The President Show'' is a series on Creator/ComedyCentral, created by Anthony Atamanuik. Its first season consisted of twenty-one episodes from April 27, 2017, to November 2, 2017, with an hour-long ChristmasSpecial on November 30. There is no indication of a second season coming, though there was a fake {{Telethon}} and a {{Mockumentary}} special the following year.
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8	It is presented as a talk show hosted by President UsefulNotes/DonaldTrump (played by Atamanuik), with Vice President Mike Pence (played by Peter Grosz) as his co-star. Most episodes follow a similar format: an opening press conference, banter with Pence (and sometimes other White House staff) about recent news, a skit, an interview with a guest at Mar-A-Lago, and a closing address. Additionally, each episode has its own "theme" chosen by Trump.
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10	Several sketches are available to watch for free because they get posted on Comedy Central's website and on their Website/YouTube channel, while the talk show bits do not get posted.
11	----
12	!!''The President Show'' contains examples of:
13	* AbusiveParents: Trump tries to be as difficult and aggressive of a father towards Don Jr. as possible to scare him away. It doesn't really work, it only encourages Don Jr. to keep annoying his dad.
14	* AdventuresInComaland: Used in "Escape", as [[spoiler:everything following Trump driving into the ocean takes place in his head]].
15	* ArtisticLicenseHistory: In the Christmas special, it was said that Trump gained a million-dollar loan from his late father Fred which is how he got wealthy. In reality, Trump borrowed at least $60 million from his father.
16	* AttentionWhore: Trump gets mad that SantaClaus is getting all the children's attention at the mall. Trump then declares, "I'm the only big fat red guy that gets attention around here!"
17	* BattleInTheCenterOfTheMind: Happens in the telethon special, in which Trump is confronted by a phantom of Robert Mueller.
18	* BigEater: Trump genuinely loves food up to the point he's overweight. In one sketch, Pence tells guest interviewees that he secretly makes sure Trump doesn't overeat ("No, there's no more ice cream in the freezer" and "No, this is actually the 3rd burrito you've had" even though it was only his second).
19	* {{Bookends}}:
20	** The first and last (pre-Xmas) episode of Season 1 has Trump describe himself as "just a sad, lonely man, who's in way over his head". They both also feature Creator/KeithOlbermann, a critic of Trump in real life, as a guest.
21	** In the {{Mockumentary}}, the final scene is a video Trump recorded to air after his death, which ends with a variation on [[MadLibsCatchphrase every episode's opening and closing lines]].
22	-->"I was ''the president''. Can you believe it? ...Bye-bye."
23	* ButtMonkey: Mike Pence is always getting abused in many ways by Trump. Could double as a TakeThat towards the real life Pence for agreeing to be Vice President to a childish, selfish megalomaniac.
24	* CallingTheOldManOut: Don Jr. shows up in the sketch "Executive Order: A Little Less Transparency" just to embarrass his dad for making poor decisions as president and complaining that his dad's health care bill is horrendous.
25	* CasanovaWannabe: Donald Trump Jr. in the Telethon special, which takes place after his real-life counterpart's divorce; he volunteered to be a phone operator just to flirt with the callers.
26	* TheChainsOfCommanding: When Trump isn't using his position to fuel his ego, he's bemoaning the amount of responsibility being President holds.
27	* ChekhovsGunman: In the Telethon special, [[spoiler:the random Trump supporter volunteering on the phones is an undercover FBIAgent there to catch Trump before he runs off with all of the raised cash. The special ends with the FBI rounding up the entire cast (with the possible exception of Kellyanne Conway, who's narrating the event as it happens).]]
28	* ChristmasSpecial: "I Came Up With Christmas: A President Show Christmas", an hour-long special that aired following the first season.
29	* {{Cliffhanger}}: The SeasonFinale, "Escape", ends with a "To Be Continued" after the whole episode focuses on [[spoiler:Trump's thoughts while drowning]].
30	* ClipShow: "A Nation In Pieces", airing near the end of Season 1.
31	* {{Cloudcuckoolander}}:
32	** Steve Bannon's appearances always lead to him SuddenlyShouting ''very'' questionable things.
33	** Trump might be this too, if not just a very childish and idiotic misogynist and xenophobe.
34	* ComicallyMissingThePoint: Trump often does this. For example, when UsefulNotes/AndrewJackson keeps trying to lecture Trump that he wasn't involved in UsefulNotes/TheAmericanCivilWar.
35	-->'''Trump:''' I told everybody that you would have prevented the Civil War!
36	-->'''Jackson:''' No, Mr. President. I didn't fight in the Civil War. I fought in the UsefulNotes/WarOf1812.
37	-->'''Trump:''' 18 to 12, the forbidden years.
38	* ConspiracyTheorist: Steve Bannon, who spews wild conspiracies over the U.S. government being infested with witches or albino pelican people about to rise from {{Atlantis}} and take over the world. Trump actually ''agrees'' with Bannon about the pelican people.
39	* ConsummateLiar: The portrayal of Kellyanne Conway, to the point that her special talent during the Telethon special episode is making anyone and anything sound positive.
40	* DeathSeeker: Trump once mentions a fantasy which starts with him getting to drive a great big truck, and ends with him purposely driving into the ocean. [[spoiler:He gets his wish in "Escape", though he doesn't immediately die.]]
41	* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: After reviving Andrew Jackson by pulling him out of a painting in the White House, Trump is asked of Jackson about whether America is still enslaving blacks and battling Indian tribes. Trump denies neither still exist, but adds that he signed the Keystone Pipeline which decimated Indian reservations and in modern day America, black people are being incarcerated at a high rate and forced to work for no pay in prison. Jackson comments he's impressed by how similar this is to what happened during his presidency.
42	* DissonantLaughter: Don Jr. is laughing his head off in ''every'' scene he appears. It's possible he could be a katagelasticist.
43	* DragonWithAnAgenda: Pence, when out-of-sight from Trump, has mentioned that he's just biding his time and trying to seem non-threatening until Trump's inevitable impeachment, so that he can take over as President.
44	* ElvisImpersonator: Trump's musical number "Porn Star" and fashion attire in the Make America Great A-thon special parody Elvis.
45	* FiveStagesOfGrief: Trump goes through this in the "It's A Tremendous Life" segment of the Christmas special that Bernie Sanders put him through in which he is in a parallel universe where his father wasn't rich, and so Trump is reduced to an unemployed con man who steals coins from street services such as public phones:
46	** Denial: The real Trump keeps denying to Bernie that he would've failed without his father's money.
47	** Bargaining: He tries peddling trips to Mar-A-Lago Resort to New York civilians walking by.
48	** Anger: He gets furious over his lack of business over selling trips to Mar-A-Lago Resort, then gets denigrated by both his landlord and his wife Ivana for being too broke to pay rent and utilities, which only makes him angrier and he resorts to shouting out his window.
49	** Acceptance: He gleefully goes on a rampage through the streets causing crimes and freely stealing money. But this doesn't last long and he gets caught by the police.
50	** Depression: He starts bawling after the police arrest him for flirting with teenage girls.
51	* ForWantOfANail: In the Mockumentary, set in the future, the series of events that leads to Trump being removed from office and committed to a seniors center all starts with a victory for Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
52	* TheFundamentalist: Pence tries to push Christian fundamentalist beliefs whenever he can especially on people who aren't devout Christian conservatives like he is, such as little kids at the mall.
53	* GeniusDitz: Trump; sometimes he's ignorant of the consequences of his actions, but other times he's fully aware and simply doesn't care about anyone else.
54	* GladiatorGames: Trump orders Pence and Bannon to fight each other for his own amusement. Although it seemed that it was going to happen anyways without Trump asking for it cause [[TheBully Bannon]] kept egging on Pence.
55	* GreaterScopeVillain: You can interpret that Vladimir Putin is this to ''The President Show'', since (in the context of the show's setting) he's the reason Donald Trump became President of the United States after rigging the election.
56	* HomoeroticSubtext: Trump performs some suggestive actions with Anthony Scaramucci (played by Mario Cantone) during the latter's brief time working in the Oval Office. Scaramucci's last appearance even ends with him and Trump [[spoiler:making out]].
57	* HurricaneOfPuns: In the Make America Great A-thon special, Trump claims he has Russian contacts (eye contacts to be precise) and that his contacts help him evade tacks on the floor and chop down trees, so therefore he does "tacks evasion" and "tree-sin".
58	* {{Hypocrite}}:
59	** Trump complains about American jobs getting outsourced to foreign producers, but it turns out a lot of his merchandising is also produced overseas.
60	** Don Jr also calls his sister Ivanka one for speaking out against sexual harassment but then endorsing her own father, whom Don Jr. says is guilty of said crimes.
61	* IgnoredEpiphany: After Trump confronts his true self in "Intelligence".
62	* InsultBackfire: The episode "Flag" ends with Trump and Pence dressed as superheroes, but Pence flubs his line; Trump's exasperated "Jesus, Mike!" is then seen by [[TheFundamentalist Pence]] as an even better name for his super-self.
63	* ItsAllAboutMe: A key part of Trump's character, and why he's hosting his own talk show while already being President.
64	* JerkassHasAPoint: In the gun debate part of the Make America Great A-thon, Trump admits that he wants to win over both the college students supporting gun control and the NRA gun rights advocates. While of course being afflicted by short attention span and not focusing on addressing the gun issue (only caring about getting approval from both of them), when both sides finally meet each other Trump admits that he can't be the solution to everyone's problems and so he lets the two sides amiably ruminate over solutions of their own.
65	* JourneyToTheCenterOfTheMind: The result of guided meditation in the episode "Intelligence". [[spoiler:"Escape" also has him conversing with his own psyche (played by Creator/LewisBlack) during his AdventuresInComaland.]]
66	* LiteralMinded: Trump seems to display signs of being this.
67	-->'''Reporter 1:''' Sir, [[TheWhiteHouse the House]] is talking impeachment.
68	-->'''Trump:''' [[ComicallyMissingThePoint Houses don't talk]], you dummy.
69	* LuredIntoATrap: In the "Mullerman" sketch, Robert Mueller lured in Donald Trump and his staff to him by putting up a highway sign that says "Donald J. Trump State Park" into an empty forest while they were going to a donor party. Only Trump [[TooDumbToLive overlooks the fact that this so-called state park was never on the map]]. Although Pence and the rest of his staff advised against it, Trump insisted they go anyways.
70	* MadLibsCatchphrase: Trump's "I'm the president! Can you believe it? Let's roll!" is slightly different every episode, generally replacing one word (like the "believe") with the title of the episode, or in the ''[[Series/TheTwilightZone1959 Twilight Zone]]''-themed episode, being said by the Creator/RodSerling-like presenter rather than Trump.
71	* ManChild: Trump is indubitably on the same brain level as children, except he has worse temper and is more aggressive than most children. He is so childish that Mike Pence clearly "fathers" him and Trump doesn't notice it. For example in the "Deck the Malls" sketch when Trump is getting tired of walking around the shopping mall:
72	-->'''Trump:''' When do we get to Cinnabon, Mike?
73	-->'''Pence:''' At the end. You have to do a full work-out to get your treat.
74	* MentalWorld: A reoccurring segment is Trump retreating to his own Land of Fake Believe, home of characters such as The Forgotten Manatee and the hero Scape-Goat, to avoid dealing with his real-world problems.
75	* MistakenForBadass: Trump keeps erroneously calling Andrew Jackson a war hero who triumphantly led the United States out of the Civil War, which is completely inaccurate and Jackson asserts he died before the Civil War ever happened, owned hundreds of slaves and massacred/expelled entire Indian tribes.
76	* {{Mockumentary}}: "A President Show Documentary: The Fall of Donald Trump", first airing before the 2018 midterm elections. Set in the year 2030, it covers Trump becoming both the Republican ''and'' Democratic nominee in 2020, [[TakeAThirdOption losing the election to Green Party candidate Jill Stein]], having to be forcibly removed from the White House after refusing to step down, attempting to return to television, and vanishing from the public eye after being committed to the senior center that Mar-A-Largo gets converted into, all while his former council make new lives for themselves (literally, in the case of Mike/"Richard" Pence).
77	* ANaziByAnyOtherName: Towards the end of the Telethon special episode, a frustrated Trump starts ranting in German about how the FBI investigation is ruining his grand vision, and Kellyanne Conway briefly refers to him as "mein Fuhrer".
78	* NightmareSequence: In the Christmas special, Bernie Sanders forces Trump to see an alternate reality of himself in which his father was never rich and so never gave Donald that famous $1 million loan. Donald is now a broke and petty coin thief ''in his 70s''. And because most people these days have cell phones, guess how much luck he's had robbing public telephones.
79	* NoIndoorVoice: Having a childish personality, Trump tends to scream a lot.
80	* OneDegreeOfSeparation: A segment in "Escape" has Trump attempt to connect all of his problems to UsefulNotes/HillaryRodhamClinton in a Six Degrees format.
81	* ParentalIncest: Trump has very strong, sexual feelings towards his daughter Ivanka.
82	* PoliticallyIncorrectVillain: Trump. For example, during the ChristmasEpisode, he claims that the only holidays before it were Kwanzaa and Toyotathon (which is a vehicle sale).
83	* ProductPlacement: The ChristmasEpisode is brought to you by coal. Coal: [[CrossesTheLineTwice One of the good blacks]].
84	* RedOniBlueOni: The impulsive, short-tempered Trump is the Red, and the even-tempered StraightMan Pence is the Blue. Their ties, coincidentally, match their colors. Bernie Sanders sometimes guest stars as another Blue Oni.
85	* SayingTooMuch: Don Jr. tends to speak the truth far more often than President Trump would prefer.
86	* ShoutOut: Many of the show's gags are based on other media, such as...
87	** "Mothers": [[Film/{{Psycho}} Trump being haunted by, and then dressing as, his mother]].
88	** "Flag": Trump convinces himself that Brad Sherman is [[Franchise/TheTerminator a time-traveling robot named The Sherminator]].
89	** "Fear": The opening and closing are based on ''Franchise/TheTwilightZone'', and there's a found-footage encounter with [[Franchise/TheSlenderManMythos The Mullerman]].
90	** The rant described in ANaziByAnyOtherName is an AffectionateParody of the WebVideo/HitlerRants.
91	* TheSociopath: Trump has shades of this, usually in the closing addresses when he acknowledges how his actions are hurting America.
92	* SpoiledBrat: Trump obviously, even calling the White House "a real dump" when most Americans (including his own supporters) will never get to afford to live somewhere as big or fancy as the White House.
93	* SpontaneousChoreography: The halfway point of the ChristmasEpisode is marked by Trump and a reporter (played by Creator/BebeNeuwirth) breaking into a song-and-dance number about their symbiotic relationship.
94	* StraightManAndWiseGuy: Pence and Trump, respectively.
95	* StrawHypocrite: Don Jr. jokingly calls his sister Ivanka one for denouncing sexual harassment but endorsing their father, who Don Jr. designates the "President of Sexual Harassment".
96	* StrawMisogynist:
97	** Trump seems to hate women, not just Hillary Clinton. He complains they ruin everything from ''[[Film/Ghostbusters2016 Ghostbusters]]'' to his health care bill and his son Don Jr. pointed out that he hates ''any'' woman who won't sleep with him or who isn't very attractive.
98	** Pence hinted he might have misogynist feelings by complaining he stopped watching ''Film/TheDevilWearsPrada'' once he realized the protagonist is female.
99	* SuspiciouslySpecificDenial: When General Kelly comes looking for Anthony Scaramucci, Trump hides Anthony behind merely his own back and tells Kelly, "No, we don't know where Mooch is or what couch he lives in!"
100	* {{Telethon}}: The format of a special, "Make America Great A-thon". What they're actually funding money for, however, changes with Trump's whims.
101	* TokenWhite: While playing charades with Trump, Scaramucci and Pence, Bannon has to make out "Justice Department Fights for White College Applicants".
102	* TwoTimerDate: One segment of the Telethon special episode has Trump doing this with teens wanting better gun control, and adults wanting to keep their guns; they turn out to be willing to compromise with each other once Trump leaves.
103	* VillainProtagonist: Isn't it obvious?
104	* VisualPun: The Russian "ties" Trump allegedly has.
105	* WellDoneSonGuy: Don Jr. knows he's not his father's favorite child, but still tries to make him proud.
106	* YesMan: Pence is usually this to Trump, but he often does try to fight off Trump's abuse.
107	----
108
109	->''"Bye-bye!"''
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Context Series / ThePresidentShow