It has been 13 days since Donald Trump won the Electoral College (Hillary Clinton as of last Wednesday is up by over 1.7 million popular votes) but the President-elect sure has been busy.
In less than two weeks, he has made some awful cabinet picks, prompted concern over conflicts of interest between the Trump company and the Trump presidency, seems to be on track to violate the Constitution on his first day in office, and just settled a lawsuit against Trump University for $25 million, though he did not admit to any wrongdoing.
Oh, and he's had time to lash out at beloved Broadway musical Hamilton.
To recap:
Vice-president-elect Mike Pence attended a performance of Hamilton last Friday and was booed by audience members as he took his seat.
Here's Pence getting booed as he gets to his seats at Hamilton pic.twitter.com/IRQG68x1sB
— David K (@dkipke12) November 19, 2016
At the end of the show, cast members assembled on stage and actor Brandon Victor, who plays Aaron Burr, made this appeal to Pence directly:
“We, sir — we — are the diverse America who are alarmed and anxious that your new administration will not protect us, our planet, our children, our parents, or defend us and uphold our inalienable rights,” he said. “We truly hope that this show has inspired you to uphold our American values and to work on behalf of all of us.”
Pence told Fox News on Sunday that he "wasn't offended by what was said." But, as usual, his message and the President-elect's were completely different. Trump fired off a series of tweets denouncing the Hamilton cast, calling them "rude" and demanding they "apologize."
The Theater must always be a safe and special place.The cast of Hamilton was very rude last night to a very good man, Mike Pence. Apologize!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 19, 2016
The cast and producers of Hamilton, which I hear is highly overrated, should immediately apologize to Mike Pence for their terrible behavior
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 20, 2016
Victor stood his ground on CBS This Morning today, saying that he had nothing to apologize for. He also invited Trump to attend a performance himself:
Trump also found a moment to take Saturday Night Live to task for its "biased" portrayal of events, most recently in this weekend's cold open.
So where does Trump find all this time? Or, rather why does he find the time? His former campaign manager Kellyanne Conway defended the President-elect on CNN, saying that the tweets only take "five minutes" of his time. She then asks: "Why do you care?" Here's the whole infuriating conversation:
We care because criticizing President-elect Trump—or any public figure—is a First Amendment right, and we at The Stranger will continue to do so, no matter how much Trump's fragile ego is hurt. Join us.