Trump Derangement Syndrome: BBC Uses Royal Wedding to Take Shot at Trump
Say what you want about President Donald Trump, but one thing is clear: Even his critics can’t stop obsessing about him.
In the latest example of the president living rent-free in the heads of the media, a news agency nearly 4,000 miles away on another continent decided to bizarrely bring up Trump on Saturday, tripping over themselves to jab at him during coverage of an unrelated event.
Call it “Trump Derangement Syndrome.” As part of its ongoing coverage of the much-anticipated royal wedding in England, taxpayer-funded BBC Three tried to mock the 45th president’s inauguration by comparing his crowd with the turnout for the UK matrimony.
“BBC Three, which targets younger audiences, shared side-by-side birds-eye-view photos of the crowds on the Long Walk outside Windsor Castle and the National Mall on the day of President Trump’s inauguration in January 2017, with the insinuation that the wedding attracted more people,” reported The Washington Examiner.
“Just saying,” the BBC’s official account declared, along with a shrug emoji.
The royal wedding, of course, is one of the most talked-about events of the last several years. The marriage of Prince Harry and actress Meghan Markle, an American, has brought considerable buzz from the tabloid crowd and international well-wishers alike.
Pundits on social media tripped over themselves to applaud the BBC’s strange shot at Trump. “Savage,” posted MSNBC contributor Natasha Bertrand.
“Love > Hate,” responded Harry Potter author and billionaire J. K. Rowling, as if that explained everything.
“Epic trolling of Trump by BBC Three,” gushed Brian Klaas, a Washington Post columnist and vocal critic of the president.
We have no choice but to scratch our heads and ask… was it?
What leftist commentators are calling “epic trolling” turns out to just be a side-by-side image of two completely unrelated events, in different years, in different countries.
If anything, the “troll” is desperate and reaching, showing that even on a special day that should be all about the Brits, they can’t even stop talking about an American president for a few hours. Trump Derangement Syndrome, indeed.
One look at the images makes it clear that it isn’t even an equivalent comparison. The Washington, D.C. photo is significantly more zoomed out — look at the size of the streets and people in the crowd — and the venue sizes are not anywhere close to similar.
Yes, BBC, if you take a photo of a spread-out crowd from so high half the city is visible, and then take another of a tightly-packed portion of a single road on another continent, they look different. Amazing investigative work.
Then there’s the pesky fact that Trump’s inauguration took place on a cold January day in the middle of winter, versus a warm summer day in London.
CNN called the 2017 inauguration weather “gloomy,” while Washington Post used the term “dreary.” Meanwhile, it was 70 degrees and sunny at the royal wedding. Minor details.
Or, how about the fact that there is a presidential inauguration every four years, rain or shine. They’re just not that rare.
Royal weddings, however, are once or twice-in-a-lifetime events that are anticipated decades in advance. There was a seven-year gap between the weddings of Prince William and Prince Harry, and another 12 year wait from Prince Edward’s wedding before that.
An intermediate wedding of Prince Charles did take place in the middle of that long wait, but this was his second marriage after divorcing the famed Princess Diana and was only a small, private ceremony with comparably little fanfare.
Of course, having a bit of good-natured fun by jabbing at the president is completely fine, but it would help if the joke actually made sense.
Instead, it looks like even 242 years after the Declaration of Independence, the British aristocracy still can’t get us trouble-making colonists out of their heads.
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