Donald Trump’s White House is melting down over Wednesday night’s South Park premiere, which just so happened to attack the president’s “teeny tiny” manhood and depict him as literally in bed with the Devil, effectively taking over the role held on the show for years by the late genocidal dictator Saddam Hussein.
“The Left’s hypocrisy truly has no end — for years they have come after South Park for what they labeled as ‘offense’ [sic] content, but suddenly they are praising the show,” Trump White House spokesperson Taylor Rogers tells Rolling Stone in a statement Thursday morning. “Just like the creators of South Park, the Left has no authentic or original content, which is why their popularity continues to hit record lows. This show hasn’t been relevant for over 20 years and is hanging on by a thread with uninspired ideas in a desperate attempt for attention. President Trump has delivered on more promises in just six months than any other president in our country’s history — and no fourth-rate show can derail President Trump’s hot streak.”
The episode came just hours after it was reported that Paramount had agreed to buy the global streaming rights for South Park in a five-year deal worth $1.5 billion.
The twice-impeached, repeatedly indicted president has for decades harbored intense, mean-spirited pop-culture fixations, and that personality trait has not changed six months into his second administration. It would be easier to shrug off his celebrity obsessions as mere cattiness, if waging war on late-night television and its corporate owners weren’t an actual facet of his administration’s sprawling project of authoritarianism and fear.
Prior to the White House’s statement, Rolling Stone had asked several Trump advisers if clips of the latest South Park episode had been circulating among Trump’s staff. One senior administration official replied, “Of course,” noting how much their phone had lit up about it. A Trump adviser also said they’d seen it, and that as a longtime fan of the series, they found it “disappointing.”
Trump recently secured a hefty payout from Paramount to settle his meritless lawsuit against CBS News’ 60 Minutes, based on his claims that the show selectively edited an interview with former Vice President Kamala Harris, his 2024 opponent, to “make her look better.” The agreement is part of a broader pattern of major corporations settling Trump’s baseless lawsuits, agreeing to shovel millions of dollars into his presidential library fund to accommodate the president.
The Paramount settlement comes as the firm seeks regulatory approval for its merger with Skydance — and appears to contain more than just a payout to Trump’s library fund. According to Trump, the deal includes a $16 million settlement as well as $20 million “from the new Owners, in Advertising, PSAs, or similar Programming.”
South Park specifically skewered the reported PSA arrangement on Wednesday. The episode concluded with an AI-generated PSA showing a fully nude Trump wandering the desert with a “teeny tiny” penis.
Paramount has faced mounting criticism over its efforts to cozy up to Trump. The executive producer of 60 Minutes quit in April, and said he was no longer allowed “to make independent decisions” running the show. The company’s decision to part ways with host Stephen Colbert and end his late night show has created an uproar, too.
