Donald Trump Enters the Game of Thrones: An Interview
'Why are we letting morons like Jon Snow run our country into the ground? It's pathetic.'


Donald Trump is many things: the current Republican frontrunner, the most plausible winner of the all-important Iowa caucus (we'll find out for sure tonight), and—presumably—a claimant for the Iron Throne of Westeros.
The Donald recently sat down with Reason for a chat about his strategy to win Game of Thrones' War of the Five Kings, slay Daenerys Targaryen's dragons, and build a giant wall of ice around the known world.
[This interview is inspired by—and in the same vein as—The Federalist's terrific piece, "Donald Trump: Let Me Tell You About Smaug." Both pieces are works of satire.]
----
Reason: Ser Trump, you're running to be Donald, the First of His Name, King of the Andals and the First Men, Lord of the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros. Why should the people choose you to sit the Iron Throne?
Well, first of all, it's not a very nice-looking throne, okay? I've got a hundred thrones that are better than that in my hotels and casinos. They're much bigger. The Iron Throne, it's tiny. My thrones are yuge. Look, I liked King Robert, I got along with him, I did some deals with him, but he had a loser's throne. That's just a fact. Nice, guy, friendly guy, we laughed together, we shared whores together, but not the best king, okay? I mean, who gets killed by a wild boar? I like king's who win. I'm just saying.
And don't get me started on Queen Cersei. I'll tell you what. She's a bimbo. She's a lightweight. She has no idea what she's doing, she's running this country into the ground, she's making terrible deals. Horrible! She's made terrible deals with the Faith Militant, with Littlefinger, with the Tyrells. We're terribly in debt now because of her. We're getting killed by Braavos by the way, and I'll tell you what, it's Cersei's fault. She's not even very good-looking, by the way. She won't sleep with me. She only sleeps with her relatives, I guess. Everybody knows that but nobody talks about it, because she executes you if you do. We've just becoming so politically correct these days, it's disgusting.
But Ser Trump, don't these kinds of accusations feed into the "War on Women" narrative?
Let me say this, and I'll say it quickly. I love women. Everybody knows it. Everybody knows it. I have millions of supporters who are women. Women love me. They all want to sleep with me. That's just a fact. Ask anyone. Send a raven anywhere and ask anyone. The Khaleesi wants to sleep with me, okay? I know this for a fact. So I'm not afraid of her. Why would I be afraid of someone who fled the country right after she was born? I don't know, maybe she wasn't even born here. You know the Targaryens, they're foreigners. Who knows where they come from? I'm just saying what people tell me, I don't know that she's eligible to rule. But she doesn't scare me. Her dragon doesn't scare me. Why would I be worried about a gigantic fire-breathing lizard? It's uglier than Rosie o'Donnell.
Let's turn to your recent comment, "Ned Stark had it coming." Some northern voters were offended. Your response?
Look, I loved Ned, I worked with Ned, okay? Did a lot of deals with him. He was someone I could work with. But he turned out to be a yuge sucker. He got suckered by the Lannisters. I'll tell you what his problem was: he didn't have good advisors. He listened to Littlefinger and Varys and he just got absolutely murdered. I know all the smartest people, okay? Most of them work for me. They've all sworn oaths to me. So I'd do a much better job than Ned Stark.
By the way, let me just say this, Ned's wife was even worse—just terrible at making deals. She gave away Jaime Lannister for nothing. Pathetic! I would never make a deal like that. If I'd been in charge, Joffrey would have been on his knees, choking on his pie while he begged me to release his uncle—actually, it's his dad, everybody knows that, but you can't say it, because it's offensive, even though it's a fact. But Catelyn Stark just totally ruined everything. She's a loser and a moron. And I'm sorry, but let me just say this, because it's true, so was her son, Robb. Whole family of losers, okay? Terrible deal-makers. He was getting killed. He was getting flayed alive, I have to tell you that. I'm sorry, but it's true.
Reports have recently surfaced that place you at the Red Wedding, associating with friends of the Lannisters. You're running against Cersei Lannister, but your critics say you have always been on good terms with her. Are you insincere?
Of course I was on good terms with the Lannisters, everyone who knows anything about making money in Westeros was working with the Lannisters. You had to do it. Look, I talk to everyone, I go to parties with everyone, I make deals. I was at the Red Wedding. It was a great event, let me tell you, yuge event. The Boltons, people don't like them because they offend some people, but I can work with them. I can even work with the Freys. The Freys love me! But let me just say this, I would make much better deals with the Freys than Catelyn Stark did, okay? If I was in charge of Robb's army, we would have crossed that bridge without anyone marrying a Frey. It just wouldn't have happened. And then we wouldn't have had all these problems.
One of your rivals, Republican Sen. Ted Cruz, recently accused you of having "Highgarden values." How does that sit with you?
He really embarrassed himself on that one. I don't know what he means, but he should apologize to the hardworking people of Highgarden, okay? I lived there, they are good people. They went through a lot when Renly died—good guy, by the way, respectable guy, didn't get as many women as me, but a good deal-maker. Shame on Ted Cruz for mocking Highgarden. He's a hypocrite. He's bedded just as many Oldtown wenches as any other guy in this race, for one thing. But he's desperate. I'm killing him in the polls, even among Dornishmen.
Speaking of the polls, Stannis Baratheon is enjoying some traction after denouncing you as the embodiment of darkness. He says that your election would bring about "the night that never ends." Your response?
I'll tell you, nothing ever ends when you're around that guy. He's so boring. No personality whatsoever. It's no surprise I'm killing him, absolutely hacking him to death in the polls. He's running to be king just because his brother was king and it's a little sad, frankly. He's so washed up, I don't even know why he's still in the race after what happened at Blackwater Bay. He got beaten by a dwarf! I like kings who don't lose to dwarves and deranged inbred teenagers. Stannis is so ugly, too. His wife is ugly, and his daughter is horrible looking—that face! She's much uglier than my daughter, Ivanka. If Ivanka wasn't my daughter, I'd probably add her to my harem, by the way. But let me say this about Stannis, he has good taste in fire priestesses, I'll admit that. I've slept with Melisandre, of course. She was great. She loves me. She's probably going to leave Stannis for me, because my poll numbers are so good and she likes winners. My poll numbers are absolutely on fire, I'm telling you. It's a fact.
Will you pledge to support the Night's Watch?
I'll tell you what we're going to do, we're going to build a huge wall of ice, not just around the North, but around the whole country, okay? And we're going to get the White Walkers and the Wildlings to pay for it. We're also deporting all the Wildlings. We'll kill their families, too. We have to do it. They're trying to destroy us, and you want to just let them in? That's suicide. It's such a stupid idea that only a Stark could have come up with it. Why are we letting morons like Jon Snow run our country into the ground? It's pathetic.
Last question: Will we see you at the next debate?
Well, I told Fox News this, but if Arya is hosting it, I'm not going. She's biased against me. She says I'm on her list of names, whatever that means. I don't know. Frankly, she's really bad at her job.
Thank you, Ser Trump. Good luck to you in the Harrenhal caucus.
Thanks for having me. Together we can make Westeros great again.
Editor's Note: As of February 29, 2024, commenting privileges on reason.com posts are limited to Reason Plus subscribers. Past commenters are grandfathered in for a temporary period. Subscribe here to preserve your ability to comment. Your Reason Plus subscription also gives you an ad-free version of reason.com, along with full access to the digital edition and archives of Reason magazine. We request that comments be civil and on-topic. We do not moderate or assume any responsibility for comments, which are owned by the readers who post them. Comments do not represent the views of reason.com or Reason Foundation. We reserve the right to delete any comment and ban commenters for any reason at any time. Comments may only be edited within 5 minutes of posting. Report abuses.
Please
to post comments
GRRM can't die soon enough.
But then who will carry on the fight for the rights of fat white losers in video game journalism and speculative fiction literary awards?
There is no need to bring race into this, you big racist.
So someone else will finish his damn books?
OK then.
Game of Thrones is tedious
Your mom is tedious. Tell her to stop calling me.
LIFE is tedious!
Can we please get some more Trump articles, I'm really needin a heapin helpin of Trump. MOAR TRUMP please!
Donald Trump derp de derp. Derp de derpity derpy derp. Until one day, the derpa derpa derpaderp. Derp de derp. Da teedily dumb. From the creators of Der, and Tum Ta Tittaly Tum Ta Too, Donald Trump is Da Derp Dee Derp Da Teetley Derpee Derpee Dumb. Rated PG-13.
NO SPOILERS
The Trump is out There! Oh wait, wrong show.
Trump is exposed as the true father of Joffrey.
I don't get it. Though I don't watch GoT. Is this funny to followers of the show?
I found it somewhat entertaining.
Of course it's funny. It makes references to characters and events from the books/show we like. Donald Trump talking about the Lannisters? There are guffaws aplenty.
No.
The article was spot on.
Trump is sort of medieval when you think about. He would have owned half of Westeros.
So half of Westeros would go bankrupt?
Well, that pretty much happens in the books.
What?!?!?! But with all that wanton destruction their economy should have been BOOMING!
Step 1: Post article about Trump.
Step 2: Profit.
Step 3: Vote for Hillary Clinton and then claim you actually voted for Gary Johnson, or didn't vote at all.
This interview is inspired by?and in the same vein as?The Federalist's terrific piece, "Donald Trump: Let Me Tell You About Smaug."
You misspelled rip-off, Robbie.
I posted the Federalist's piece in Friday's PM Links and didn't even get a mention.
At last, for the first time in my adult life, I feel like a real member of the commentariat.
Once you're in you can never get out.
Like The Hotel California?
more like the Warty Rape Dungeon(tm)
I thought Warty's basement was in Ohio?
"They all want to sleep with me."
"We'll kill their families, too."
:/ Meh, the Lord of the Rings Trump piece was pretty good because it sounded like Trump. This, eh... not so much. The Lord of the Rings one didn't cross over into full blown strawman territory, it stayed relatively consistent with the things Trump says. Thus, it read like something Trump would write.
This reads like a caricature of Trump rather than The Donald himself, so it just comes off as strawmanny. And really, when dealing with TRUMP, one doesn't NEED to resort to strawmen. Less caricature, more Trumpisms, would make it better.
Those quotes are both well within the Donald's repertoire.
I can see where the "kill there families" was pulled from, though its at best misapplied to a different issue. The real world equivalent would be The Donald telling us to kill the families of prospective refugees, which he hasn't done (yet), since the Wildlings, in their current position, can be best compared with the Syrian Refugees.
I don't recall the point in time when Donald claimed Hillary Clinton wanted to sleep with him though... and through Google can't find anything even resembling those statements. Probably wouldn't surprise me if it was out there, but so far I can't find anything like it. Citation??
I have millions of supporters who are women. Women love me. They all want to sleep with me. That's just a fact. Ask anyone.
I don't think this is about Hillary, even if he mentions the Khaleesi. It seems to just be about women, and his popularity among women. He's written about that plenty in his books.
Sheesh, tough crowd!
They are just peanut butter and jealous, Boss. You are talented, witty, and most importantly you have me.
Winner.
I say this as a man who went bald at 22 years old:
Hair is absolutely as important as people make it out to be and I'd kill your children to get mine back.
I'm middle-aged and still have all of my hair. No grey either, thanks to a special blend of herbs 'n' spices.
The only advantage is that it happened so early, people who meet me just assume I do it voluntarily to save on hair product costs and barber shop bills.
They all know the truth.
I suspect as much. But give me my comfortable lies!
Loved the interview Robby. The Red Wedding was a disaster.
For what it's worth, being a fan of Thrones [the book, not the porn...] I thought it was funny.
Trump IS a caricature of Trump. How could you possibly make him sound more retarded than he actually is?
"How could you possibly make him sound more retarded than he actually is?"
There's like ten thousand ways to sound retarded. Trump sounds as such in a wide variety of ways. No need to misapply the nine thousand other ways to him.
So this is what journalism school gets us these days, huh?
Kidding, Robby, kidding.
Reason Writer 1: Why aren't we as funny as the commenters?
Reason Writer 2: I don't know, could it be that we're not real libertarians?
Reason Writer 1: That's ridiculous, we get invited to all the cocktail parties don't we?
Reason Writer 2: Yeah, you're right, I don't get it. Try to write something funny.
Reason Writer 1: Ok, I'm on it, I should make it about Trump, right?
ENB and I have this exact conversation pretty much 10 times a day.
You might not be funny, but you get to talk to ENB. Seems like it's the commenters who should be jelly.
Why, ENB talks to we peons all of the time. In fact, she's the writer here who mingles with the commentariat the most. I better be quiet I guess before they do a Lucy with her.
Meh.
Blasphemy!
I believe you, Robby.
You better.
Reason Writer 1: Why aren't we as funny as the commenters?
Not enough depraved indifference.
Or unbridled hedonistic tendencies.
I think ENB has that covered
Trump: What articles get the most comments?
Reason Writers: Yours, by far.
Trump: That's right, people love me, I'm yuuuuugggeee!
Reason Writers: Ok, we have to go now so we can post our latest Trump article.
Nah. Trump still can't hold a candle to abortion, gay marriage or the invading Musselman hordes when it comes to comment counts. And half the comments on Trump articles are people bitching about too many Trump articles.
It's uglier than Rosie o'Donnell.
[citation needed]
Hard to imagine; wouldn't want to.
here's the WashPost's cartoonist Tom Toles unintentionally making everyone larf.
Donald Trump will win Iowa today and go on to run the table through the rest for the primary season. He will become the Republican nominee and receive a very surprising amount of craven, groveling, desperate support from what's left of his shattered party. But it will only be the waystop to electoral defeat and disaster in November.
He will lose to Hillary Clinton, who will be our next president, like it or not. She will do well enough in Iowa today to overcome Sanders' upcoming win in New Hampshire, and then become the Democratic nominee. She will go on to crush Trump in the general and likely lead a ticket that retakes the Senate for the Democrats.
Yeah, that last line is a corker.
Well, I mean if someone gets the GOP nomination, that has to be the final disaster that dooms the Republicans, right? Replace Trump's name with anyone.
None of that sounds implausible.
I have my finger on the pulse of the craven, groveling, desperate bloc and we think it's implausible.
Well, I should hope so. I already used up one of my three wishes on "seeing a President perp-walked out of the White House", and President Hillary seems like the best bet on that coming to pass.
I already used up one of my three wishes on "seeing a President perp-walked out of the White House", and President Hillary seems like the best bet on that coming to pass.
Be prepared to be disappointed.
It's quite possible that he's right. But you just know that a few months ago he was one of the typical Weigelian media dickwads assuring everyone Jeb Bush would be the nominee, so it's hardly like he's Nostradamus.
"Send a raven anywhere and ask anyone"
(polite applause)
OK, now Trump has gone too far.
Speaking of the polls, Stannis Baratheon is enjoying some traction...
Someone didn't see last season's finale!
That just shows you aren't part of the book reading master race. Stannis the Mannis will NEVER FALL!! The Boltons are going to be in for a surprise when they hit all those pit traps!!
How frustrating is it to know that Martin won't get around to publishing the last book before the series is over? Not having read the books, I don't know, but I imagine I'd be frustrated.
Eh. Story's just going to diverge, as it already has been doing for a season or two. Not much of anything I care about, but there's probably tons of people out there more easy to frustrate that are peeved about it.
The TV show has already diverged so much that I'm thinking of the two as separate stories.
He will use Theon's kingly blood to crush the Boltons!
Then he'll probably die, too.
Ahhhh, neither did you.
*slow clap*
Also, obligatory
What is his opinion on forcing Westeros to accept the faggotry of Renley Baratheon?
I think Renly sort of IS Westeros' Trump. No legitimate claim on the job, sways people to his side anyway with braggartry and charisma.
Accepting Renley can only lead to adding homosexuals to the list of protected classes, thus throwing King's Landing even further into debt.
Robby would have won my heart forever if he had found some roundabout way to make a reference to "John Stark(s)"
just because.
I just think we should legalize twincestal marriage.
Agreed. Totally shipping Arya and Bran Stark.
I don't see anybody actually going to jail for it now, Sug.
I suspect the Kardashians are involved in something along those lines
dont get me started on their ritual sacrifices to the lord of light
Sum of my knowledge about the Kardashians:
One of them is Kim, she has an ass, which apparently "broke the internet"
One is named Chloe Kloe Kluwe... whatever. She's dating a sportsball person, or was, or is once and future dating.
Bruce/Kaitlynne.. Caitlin...K-Tlin... whatever was famous for his own reasons, which have no been infinitely overshadowed by bullshit Reality TV reasons.
I understand there's actually a whole rats nest of them and people have strong opinions about their various first world problems.
That's pretty much the limit of my knowledge of them too.
all-important Iowa caucus
Citation needed.