The April Fools presidency
It’s once again April 1st, meaning to varying degrees, the public will fall for one news prank after another before the day is over. The cold hard reality, however, is that such annual silliness is losing much its inherent fun. We’re expecting to see fewer such news pranks than usual this year, for a few different reasons, the first and foremost being that this is already an April Fools presidency.
In general, news outlets seem more hesitant these days to publish phony stories on April Fools’ Day. Part of that is because the “President of the United States” has made such a game of yelling “fake news” at any real news article or real news outlet he doesn’t like. This has led many among the public to begin making that same false accusation against news outlets they don’t like, as well as a number of news outlets to make that false accusation against each other for competitive reasons.
And of course a number of con artists across the internet have tried to make a name for themselves by publishing lists or charts of supposed “fake news” sites that are purposely full of real news sites; generating controversy is the entire point. But really, this is about the fact that since Donald Trump took control of the White House, the very real and very bizarre stories coming out of his administration have made every day feel like April Fools’ Day.
When the President of the United States is posting incoherent tweets like “Build WALL trough M” and “Covfefe” and “Al Frankenstien” and “Alex Baldwin” and “Winner to receive the FAKE NEWS TROPHY” after he spent the campaign staying up til three in the morning and tweeting that everyone should go watch Miss Universe’s nonexistent sex tape, how is anyone supposed to top that with fake stories for April 1st each year? When Trump advisers as unrealistic as Carter Page and Sam Nunberg exist, how can pranksters compete? We’re still convinced Carter Page is an April Fools prank. The April Fools presidency. We don’t expect Donald Trump to still be in office by next April 1st.
