"It's tricky now because satire has become reality," he said. "We were really trying to make fun of what was going on but we couldn't keep up, and what was actually happening was much funnier than anything we could come up with.

That is true though. Especially during his first candidacy when most outside the US never heard of him yet he seemed to have jumped right out of a caricature. We only stopped laughing when he actually won.

Ok, so it was Garrison in orange makeup, blond hair, Trump like voice and happened to be an asshole president. There is no winking and nodding, they are shoving it right in your face. You are just being pedantic, saying it wasn't. It was a stand in, to 100% without a doubt, represent Trump.

They didn't use "actual" Trump because that would require some weird plot devices to use on a constant basis when it's easier to use an existing character who has a history of being different people. It was done this way because it was funnier. Obama and Clinton and everyone else are used so sparingly that they could be the actual people because it made sense.

In regards to them being scared, have you seen how nutty the ultra MAGA right are? I'd be nervous portraying Trump too due to him being a giant crybaby and risk lawsuits, lawsuits that could risk my paycheck. They were never afraid of anyone else getting up in arms because everyone else knows how to take a joke, or at least knows enough not to piss off the public by going after the show. At the end of the day, they weren't scared enough to not do it. They felt that they had run the gag long enough and decided to move on.

You're 100% right. I thought it was fucking chickenshit of them to avoid directly addressing Trump as a character.