Trump still makes a couple hundred bucks a year off his very cringe-y Fresh Prince episode
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Being President famously doesn’t pay much—a scant $400,000 a year, plus expenses—so thank god our current White House incumbent has a few spare revenue sources on hand to keep him out of the poor house. (After all, we’ve heard he’s not actually very rich.) Specifically, Donald Trump is apparently still getting money from some of the various TV appearances he’s forced himself into over the years, notably a guest star turn on a 1994 episode of The Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air.
This is per Trump’s latest financial disclosure statements, which people have been combing through lately for evidence of his other kind of relentless exposure. The statements make it clear that Trump is still getting his annual SAG pension—equaling more than $64,000 per year— plus an AFTRA pension for another $6,500. He also gets a thousand bucks annually from several different studios for royalties, including Universal (for his appearance in The Little Rascals) and WB Studios for The Fresh Prince. The latter means that we can never again watch a broadcast of the fourth season’s “For Sale By Owner”—in which Trump is the mysterious buyer interested in purchasing the sitcom family’s home—without a little twinge of guilt. (But hey, at least it’s just a clip show, so it’s not like we’re really missing out.)
Plus, its a good reminder that we can always watch the clip on safe, clean, royalty-free YouTube. It really is a top-notch example of cringe comedy, after all, as the Banks family falls over itself to welcome “Mrs. and Mrs. Donald Trump” into their homes. (That’s one Mrs. Donald Trump ago, by the way, for those of you keeping track.) The most embarrassing reaction, obviously, comes from Carlton, who basically cums in his pants when Trump enters the room. But there’s also some uncomfortable fascination in watching Will Smith—even then, one of the most charismatic people to ever fill a screen—sucking up to “The Donald” quite so vigorously, or the general sense that the show’s producers felt like they’d really scored themselves a “get” by welcoming him onto people’s TVs.