White House sends satirical news story by accident in daily newsletter and do you guys even read
Wondering what to make of that proposed Trump budget that cuts arts funding, hampers climate change research and destroys Wheels on Meals funding in favor of rockets and war?
Well, it'll be great news for America. The White House said so, in an email sent out Friday morning and posted on its website. It's proof? A link to a Washington Post article vigorously defending the budget.
The only problem: the piece, titled "Trump’s budget makes perfect sense and will fix America, and I will tell you why," was a merciless and frankly blindingly obvious satire.
The editorial, which promised schoolchildren will be taught by an F-35 wearing a MAGA hat and insisted "all fetuses will burst out of wombs brandishing an Uzi," was the work of Alexandra Petri, a celebrated comic writer.
Laying out its satirical cause for the controversial budget, the article also argued the U.S. should "let women, infants and children fight for their meat or have none." And my favorite: "Clean rivers and breathable air are making us SOFT and letting the Chinese and the Russians get the jump on us."
While Trump isn't afraid to root around in the murky depths of the internet to make his point, even linking to the "failing" New York Times this morning, this is pretty spectacularly stupid. We'll just chalk it down to an intern reading no further than the headline. Right?
Petri was, at first, delighted.
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Then reality set in.
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Mashable has reached out to the White House for more. In the meantime, keep an eye out for the next newsletter, as The Onion and the New Yorker's Andy Borowitz offer totally real and not at all satirical breakdowns of the Merkel visit.
Topics Donald Trump
Tim Chester was Senior Editor, Real Time News in Los Angeles. Before that he was Deputy Editor of Mashable UK in London. Prior to joining Mashable, Tim was a Senior Web Editor at Penguin Random House, helping to relaunch the Rough Guides website and other travel brands. He was also a writer for Buzzfeed, GQ and The Sunday Times, covering everything from culture to tech and current affairs. Before that, he was Deputy Editor at NME.COM, overseeing content and development on the London-based music and entertainment site. Tim loves music and travel and has combined these two passions at festivals from Iceland to Malawi and beyond.
