The $400 kicks “gave me the power to say I’m good at basketball,” Shane Gillis’ character explains
Saturday Night Live took aim at former President Donald Trump‘s decision to hawk gold sneakers for about $400 a pair with a reimagining of the 1992 flick White Men Can’t Jump called White Men Can Trump.
Shane Gillis‘ character, rather than seeing his on-court skills legitimately improve by wearing the shoes, is able to master the ability to make people think he’s now dominant at the sport. As the narrator of the trailer states: “Winning is a state of mind.”
The shoes “gave me the power to say I’m good at basketball, then double down on that until people actually start to believe it,” Gillis’ character says, alluding to Trump’s incessant false claims, like about the 2020 presidential election.
With the shoes, he is also able to convince his manager that he needs his spacious office rather than a cubicle, a scale that he really doesn’t weigh what it says, and a woman that he’s actually amazing between the sheets.
Trump announced the shoe line the day after he was ordered to pay $454 million in fines for years of bank fraud in New York, and a few weeks after he was hit with a $83.3 million ruling in a rape defamation case.