The Trump-inspired Law & Order: SVU episode has become something of an urban legend by this point. First announced during the presidential campaign, the episode – which reportedly was about a Trump-like presidential candidate accused of sexual assault – has been postponed three times.
There was this guy who was running for president—he was very Trump-ish, and girls were coming out of the woodwork saying he was raping them. And me and Mariska [Hargitay, who plays Lt. Olivia Benson],we’re on his bumper, and he’s sweating it. But at the end of the day, it comes out that he was innocent. He didn’t do it. So we’ve got to apologize, and he’s still doing his thing, talking his shit. And it turns out that his campaign advisor, who was his best friend, was booby-trapping him because he knew he would be terrible for America!
He says that though the Law & Order series likes to be inspired by the truth, this one hit a little too close to home, and NBC got spooked. It’s worth noting that NBC also air Trump’s own golden baby The Apprentice, so who knows if that was a factor.
They were, like, ‘Oh, shit!’ And then they said, ‘Oh, my God, it’s going to look like…’ You know, because Law & Order wants to be close, but not too close. Also, I think [Cole], he channeled Trump. So even though this guy he played wasn’t Trump, he acted like Trump. I think NBC just said, ‘You know what? This might be cheesy or corny.’ And to put it out now, it’s old and stuff. So I think they just got rid of it. I don’t know if they burned the shit or whatever. They paid me for it. I don’t give a fuck, really. I got my money!
Still, you gotta admit that it’d be wild to straight up launch an episode featuring a cartoonish caricature of the president being an accused sexual predator several months into his term, long after those allegations failed to dent his campaign.