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As It Happens

'I can't get over it:' White House newsletter shares satirical column about Trump budget cuts

The White House newsletter on Friday shared a Washington Post column that appeared at first glance to sing the Trump budget's praises. In fact, it was a biting satire.
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Humour writer Alexandra Petri is very critical U.S. President Donald Trump's budget proposal. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

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Alexandra Petri was very surprised to find her Washington Post column about the Trump administration's budget proposal on the White House's online newsletter Friday.

That's because 1600 Daily usually only shares links to articles that reflect positively on the administration — or at the very least, ones that aren't scathing, absurdist satire meant to highlight the potentially dire consequences of its polices.

"I can't get over it," Petri told As It Happens host Carol Off. "I'm very entertained by the fact that this happened, although not reassured, but that's sort of the general status of people living these days."

​Petri figures there are two possible explanations for how her column — which she describes as "mostly just me yelling at the budget" — ended up on whitehouse.gov.

The first is that whoever posted it only read as far as the headline: "Trump's budget makes perfect sense and will fix America, and I will tell you why."

The White House online newsletter shared the satirical piece under the heading 'News reports.' (Washington Post )

In that case, they might not have seen the second paragraph, which reads: "BUT HOW WILL I SURVIVE ON THIS BUDGET? you may be wondering. I AM A HUMAN CHILD, NOT A COSTLY FIGHTER JET. You may not survive, but that is because you are SOFT and WEAK, something this budget is designed to eliminate."

The second possibility, she says, is that someone read it all the way through and "really enjoyed the part when I said all teachers would be replaced by F-35s wearing Make America Great Again hats, and thought, 'This woman really gets the budget!'"

Either way, at some point on Friday, the link "mysteriously vanished" from the page, she said. The White House declined As It Happens' request for comment.

Petri, meanwhile, did what any self-respecting humour writer would do in this situation — she wrote another column.

She's also keeping a close eye on what sort of news the White House shares.

"I'm ashamed to say I was not subscribed to the Daily 1600 newsletter, although I am now because I know it uses good sources."

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