'It's a gamble': Trump opponents may have a new potent weapon —but will it work?

US President Donald Trump addresses the Israeli parliament, the Knesset, in Jerusalem on October 13, 2025. JALAA MAREY/Pool via REUTERS

During Barack Obama's presidency, many Republicans — along with quite a few libertarians and independents — brutally mocked progressives on college campuses as thin-skinned "social justice warriors" who used "safe spaces" and "trigger warnings" to shield themselves from viewpoints they disagreed with.

Obama himself was, at times, critical of "cancel culture" and the "woke" movement, arguing that progressives who disagreed with conservatives should debate them rather than trying to shut them down. And the animated comedy "South Park" ridiculed "safe spaces" unmercifully in a scathing Obama-era episode.

But the person who the GOP ultimately embraced as its leader, Donald Trump, is notoriously thin-skinned. While a long list of past U.S. presidents had a sense of humor about being lampooned on "Saturday Night Live" — from Republicans Gerald Ford, George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush to Bill Clinton — Trump becomes furious and angrily lashes out whenever he is mocked on "SNL."

In an article published by the conservative website The Bulwark on October 13, journalist Lauren Egan examines the role that mockery and ridicule can play in the resistance to Trump's second presidency.

"So, as the country careens into a succession of crises brought about by the hand of Donald Trump, it's semi-shocking to see Democrats resort to humor as a primary form of pushback," Egan explains. "But here we are. They're mocking the president and his aides as insecure, wannabe despots. They're embracing crude jokes and viral memes as they let it rip on their social media accounts. And they're ridiculing the administration's deployment of the National Guard to cities like Chicago and Portland not only as gross overreaches of power, but as frivolous publicity stunts."

Egan continues, "The approach is not meant to downplay the severity of the moment. It is, instead, an attempt to try and break through the modern media environment. More than that, it's a gamble that belittling Trump can be an effective means of damaging him. Some of the highest-profile figures in the party are embracing the tactic."

Democrats who are mocking Trump and his allies, Egan notes, include California Gov. Gavin Newsom, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-New York). According to Egan, the "staid institutions" in the Democratic Party—including the Democratic National Committee (DNC) — have "embraced a more trollish style" in their criticism of Trump.

A Newsom spokesperson told The Bulwark, "The president of the United States is a bumbling idiot — the only appropriate response is to point and laugh."

A DNC official, interviewed on condition of anonymity, told The Bulwark, "You're not going to reach new audiences with the same warmed-over talking points or sanitized content. There is a bit of a tone shift and focus on some of the absurdity and things they’re doing that deserve to be mocked."

Lauren Egan's full article for The Bulwark is available at this link.

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