Donald Trump reportedly ‘upset’ that Sean Spicer was played by woman in drag for SNL sketch

'He doesn't like his people to look weak,' says a source close to Trump

Donald Trump is said to have been most upset by the fact that his press secretary Sean Spicer was played by a woman in drag during SNL’s show at the weekend.

The Saturday Night Live sketch of Melissa McCarthy portraying Spicer as a gum-chewing, press-berating tyrant with a short temper and limited vocabulary made headlines and went viral over the weekend.  An unusual Twitter silence from The President followed, before Spicer later responded by saying that while he found the sketch “funny”, he felt that McCarthy “could dial back” a bit. He added that McCarthy “needs to slow down on the gum chewing; way too many pieces in there.”

Now, sources close to Trump claim the extent to how ‘upset’ he was by the show.

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“More than being lampooned as a press secretary who makes up facts, it was Spicer’s portrayal by a woman that was most problematic in the president’s eyes, according to sources close to him,” writes Politico. “And the unflattering send-up by a female comedian was not considered helpful for Spicer’s longevity in the gruelling, high-profile job in which he has struggled to strike the right balance between representing an administration that considers the media the “opposition party,” and developing a functional relationship with the press.”

A Trump donor told Politico that the President was disturbed by the skit because “Trump doesn’t like his people to look weak,” while sources say his Twitter silence “was seen internally as a sign of how uncomfortable it made the White House feel,” adding that “the caricature of Spicer by McCarthy struck a nerve and was upsetting to the press secretary and to his allies, who immediately saw how damaging it could be in Trump world.”

Like Trump, Spicer also criticised Alec Baldwin’s impression of the President, saying: “Alec has gone from funny to mean, and that’s unfortunate. SNL used to be really funny. There’s a streak of meanness now that they’ve crossed over to mean.”

This comes after a Tweet came to light from 2014, in which Spicer referred to Daft Punk as ‘Daft Funk‘ and told them to ‘grow up’ and take their helmets off.

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