Evan Vucci / AP
President Donald Trump speaks at a luncheon at the United Nations, Tuesday, Sept. 19, 2017.
Wednesday, Sept. 20, 2017 | 12:30 a.m.
President Donald Trump had international affairs on his mind Tuesday morning. In his speech before the United Nations, he threatened to “totally destroy North Korea.” He lambasted the Iran nuclear deal. And he proclaimed that parts of the world “are going to hell.”
But by late Tuesday, Trump was focused on other things. He pulled out his iPhone to deliver a 139-character tweet for world consumption:
“I was saddened to see how bad the ratings were on the Emmys last night — the worst ever,” Trump began.
It was really only a matter of time before the president chimed in on the Emmy Awards. Politics dominated the event Sunday night — both in the types of shows that won and as the topic of host Stephen Colbert’s opening monologue and the winners’ speeches.
Trump has expressed his displeasure with Emmys in years past, calling them rigged and dishonest. And the first minutes of Sunday’s broadcast seemed almost designed to goad the president to respond. Colbert noted that Trump was once part of Hollywood.
“And we all know the Emmys mean a lot to Donald Trump,” Colbert said in his monologue. “Because he was nominated multiple times for ‘Celebrity Apprentice’ but he never won. Why didn’t you give him an Emmy? I tell you this. If he had won an Emmy, I bet he wouldn’t have run for president. So in a way this is all your fault.”
Colbert added soon after: “What really matters to Donald Trump is ratings. You’ve got to have the big numbers. And I certainly hope we achieved that tonight.”
And then in the first surprise of the night, Sean Spicer, the former White House press secretary, rolled onto the stage behind a lectern like the one immortalized by Melissa McCarthy in her portrayal of him on “Saturday Night Live.”
“This will be the largest audience to witness an Emmys, period,” said Spicer, mocking his similar pronouncement in January about the crowd size at Trump’s presidential inauguration.
It turned out that Spicer was wrong on both occasions. The Emmys on Sunday were watched by 11.4 million people, according to Nielsen data — about the same as last year, which was the lowest ever.
Trump never won an Emmy for his reality television show, but he got close on Sunday. Actor Alec Baldwin won for his impersonation of the president on “Saturday Night Live.”
“I suppose I should say, at long last, Mr. President, here is your Emmy,” Baldwin said.
