On Friday night, Donald Trump joined the “Tonight Show’s” Jimmy Fallon for a little late night…reflecting…on what it means to be The Donald.
Literally. Reflecting. Trump interviewed a “mirror image” of himself as played by Jimmy Fallon—who did a decent job at the impersonation.
Watch:
From Mashable:
Trump responded to the jobs question like one does when one is Trump.”I’m just gonna do it,” he said.”Right,” Fallon said, laughing. “But how?””By doing it,” Trump said. “It just happens. Just by doing it.”#SoundsLegitThen it was onto immigration, where Fallon (again, as Trump) asked The Donald how he’d convince Mexico to build a wall to keep immigrants from coming to the United States, a topic that frequently makes it into Trump’s speeches.Trump flipped the interview, telling Fallon that if he was going to play Trump he might as well answer like Trump.So Fallon said he’d challenge Mexico to a game of Jenga and when they finally put the last log into the tower to set up the game, he’d say, meh, I don’t want to play anymore, leaving a huge wall.
This isn’t the first time a Republican has joined Fallon for a little good natured self-deprecation. Mitt Romney participated in a similar sketch earlier this year:
Last year, Sarah Palin riffed off of the tensions between Russia and Ukraine while Fallon did his best Vladimir Putin. Jeb Bush made an appearance during one of Fallon’s “Slow Jam the News” segments—and actually managed to pull it off.
Was Trump’s segment funny? Reasonable minds will differ, but that’s not the question we should be asking. The question is, was this effective?
Here at Legal Insurrection, we’ve gone back and forth about how much help Republicans can glean from dipping their toes in the pop culture pool. The debate continues, but the 2016 candidates are at least testing the waters. Ted Cruz might have pulled off some “Simpsons” impressions; Bobby Jindal’s humanity came out in a totally bizarre push-up challenge; Carly Fiorina fell face first into a big puddle of social justice.
Pop culture outlets mean great exposure, but in many cases, that exposure comes with a price. Does that rule apply to Donald Trump? Probably not; but then again, almost none of the “rules” we normally ascribe to politicians apply to Donald Trump.
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