ABSTRACT
“Let’s Make Donald Drumpf Again” refers to a line from a February 2016 episode of John Oliver’s HBO show Last Week Tonight. “Donald Trump is America’s back mole,” Oliver said. “It may have seemed harmless a year ago, but now that it has gotten frighteningly bigger it is no longer wise to ignore it.” The episode focused particularly on Trump’s attack on truth and on logical thinking. Oliver didn’t just reframe the conversation; he offered the public a much-needed outlet to vent its frustrations. Thus, this chapter highlights the work of some of the most important Trump-era satirists and analyzes their impact on public dialogue. It then highlights how, in response to the way that Trump and his team seemed determined to destroy many of our core democratic institutions, satirists often took on the role of conservators of the public good. This trend had begun during the George W. Bush years, but it took on more urgency and became more common after the Trump election.
