Penn Jillette says Trump presidency wasn’t bad — it was worse
Penn Jillette reaches to the late-1800s, and the author Henry James, to convey his thought about Donald Trump’s presidency.
“I’ve always expected the worst, and it’s always worse than I expected,” Jillette said during a phone chat Tuesday afternoon.
The day presented crisscrossing emotions for Jillette. A two-time contestant on NBC’s “Celebrity Apprentice,” the verbal half of Penn & Teller watched news reports of Trump supporters storming the U.S. Capitol throughout the day.
Just a day earlier, Penn & Teller notched their 20th anniversary headlining at the Rio. Next week, it’s 28 years since they premiered in Vegas, at Bally’s Celebrity Room. And Friday night, the duo returns with the eighth season of their hit CW series “Fool Us.”
Starting with the clear topic of the moment, Jillette owns a long history and unique position in the Trump universe for his time on “Celebrity Apprentice.” The Vegas headliner finished as runner-up to Trace Adkins on the “All-Star Celebrity Apprentice” competition in 2013.
Jillette, lest we forget, actually topped Adkins in money raised in the charity competition. Jillette was playing for Vegas charity Opportunity Village, Adkins for the American Red Cross. Because of Penn’s impressive fundraising, he was expected to be chosen as the “All-Star” champ.
He wasn’t. In the live season finale on NBC, Trump turned to Jillette and pronounced, “You’re fired!” giving the championship to Adkins.
At the time, the reason seemed to be that Jillette had run afoul of Trump by making fun of the then-TV star in his 2012 book, “Every Day Is an Atheist Holiday!” A passage from the tome: “We’ve chosen to make this whack job, with the cotton candy piss hair and the birther (crap), into someone we want to please.”
And that was eight years ago.
Trump evidently never forgave the jabs, exacting his revenge by giving the “Apprentice” title to Adkins.
Two years later, in July 2015, Trump dug in again, just after he announced his run for presidency. Early in his campaign he took what would be a familiar Twitter tone, blasting Penn & Teller’s Broadway show: “I hear @PennJillette show on Broadway is terrible. Not surprised, boring guy (Penn). Without the Apprentice, show would have died long ago.” And, “I loved firing goofball atheist Penn @PennJillette on The Apprentice. He never had a chance. Wrote letter to me begging for forgiveness.”
At the time, Jillette mocked Trump with, “I’m embarrassed to say I even like this.” (Trump, of course, wound up temporarily banned from Twitter after Tuesday’s upheaval.)
Jillette seized on optimism, remarkably enough, as he watched the turmoil unfold Tuesday in D.C.
“I’m pathologically optimistic, but can we please look at the numbers? We have 5,000 people in D.C., where there are some very deluded and mentally ill people,” Jillette said. “What they’re doing is horrible and unforgivable and unconscionable, and the way Trump is handling them is probably the most egregious dereliction of duty in the history of the United States. But that’s it.”
He paused and said, “How’s that for spinning something positive?”
Jillette says, back in the days of his “Apprentice” appearances, “Trump seemed like he was as horrible as any other crazy show-business guy.”
But as Trump assumed power, Jillette contended he would be a bad president. The entertainer has consistently separated President Trump from the guy who hosted the “Apprentice” TV show.
“He makes arbitrary decisions and the human brain tries desperately to make those make sense, for entertainment purposes,” Jillette said.
The show was a glimpse of what the American people could expect from Trump, with real power.
“People need to claim culpability, the (“Apprentice”) producers and the people who pretended he was a successful business person, and to a much lesser degree, those of us who called him Mr. Trump without rolling our eyes,” Jillette said. “I mean, I was very, very aware I was dealing with a dip (expletive), but because of my career and because of the show I said, ‘Yes Sir, No Sir, Mr. Trump.’
“There are parts of me … that are a little bit sickened by that.”
Penn & Teller’s residency show remains on the bench, until it can return safely to the Rio. Jillette has been especially safe since taking the show down in March. His appearance at the Rio’s announcement in December that it would reopen was a rare time he’s waded into the public.
The duo is committed to coming back, and to the Rio, despite Caesars Entertainment’s overtures to take the show to another of its company’s showrooms (over the past several months, Jubilee Theater at Bally’s, Paris Theater and Flamingo Showroom have been the center of those discussions).
“We always like to hear people out and I don’t ever like to completely shut a door,” Jillette said. “That having been said, we love this theater, we love being associated with the Rio and we fully intend to be back there. If it were a prudent and moral choice, I’d be onstage there tonight. I’m champing at the bit, but that does not overwhelm my desire for people to be safe.”
The upcoming 13 episodes “Fool Us” were recorded without an audience at the P&T theater, inside a COVID-safe “bubble.” Comic actor Kevin Pollak (most recently of “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel”) is the show’s first virtual guest. The lineup of guest-stars also includes recording star Gloria Estefan, Amanda Seyfried (“Mean Girls,” “Twin Peaks”) and Marylou Henner (hey, I met her when she was in “Chicago” at Mandalay Bay).
Jillette summons an old-Vegas reference when describing his two weeks in the Rio “bubble.”
“I was walking the halls in my bathrobe,” he said. “It was like ‘The Shining’ starring Rodney Dangerfield.” That’s a reference to Dangerfield’s wardrobe when Penn & Teller arrived in town, and a piece of history worth looking up.
John Katsilometes’ column runs daily in the A section. His “PodKats!” podcast can be found at reviewjournal.com/podcasts. Contact him at jkatsilometes@reviewjournal.com. Follow @johnnykats on Twitter, @JohnnyKats1 on Instagram.
