Alison Sullivan
A series of documents have revealed that Donald Trump intended to release a series of PSAs to make himself and his administration look good after a disastrous year. The Washington Post reports that HHS Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs Michael Caputo attempted to use a taxpayer-funded campaign with themes like “Helping the President will Help the Country.”
A monetary scandal doesn’t usually capture the public’s imagination, but this one has a somewhat hilarious detail: the administration could find barely any celebrities they’d be willing to work with on the public health campaign.
Attempts to vet celebrities revealed that most of them either “criticized the president, or supported former President Barack Obama, gay rights or same-sex marriage.”
They considered 274 celebrities and only 10 were apparently approved. Many details were leaked from the documents, including why certain celebrities were rejected specifically:
Zach Galifianakis refused to host President Trump on talk show ”; Judd Apatow “believes Trump does not have the intellectual capacity to run as President”; Billie [Eilish] is not a Trump Supporter, stated he is “destroying our country and everything we care about”; Russell Simons said “Trump is the epitome of white supremacy”; Bryan Cranston called out Trump’s attacks on journalists”
The document also stated that the Trump Administration was critical of celebrities who support gay rights and same-sex marriage, including Christina Aguilera, who “is an Obama-supporting Democrat and a gay-rights supporting liberal,” as well as musicians and actors Adam Levine, Johnny Depp, Jack Black, and Justin Timberlake.
There’s still more weirdness. The bizarre list of ten approved people for these never-produced commercials included Dennis Quaid, gospel singer CeCe Winans, singer Marc Anthony, Hasidic singer Shulem Lemmer, television doctor Dr. Oz, former basketball player Dwyane Wade, singer Enrique Iglesias, and country singers Billy Ray Cyrus, Miranda Lambert, and Garth Brooks.
What a mix! I almost wish Trump had used millions of dollars to give his campaign a boost just to see the result.