Harvard Lampoon Staffers Pull Fast One On Donald Trump, Crimson
Sometime in July, the above photo appeared on the website TheCrimson.co, and purported to depict the editors of The Harvard Crimson, gleefully showing their support for presidential candidate Donald Trump; the newspaper’s actual address is TheCrimson.com. The website also included the following purported endorsement of Trump by Harvard Crimson editors.
“Donald J. Trump is known as a celebrity above all, and although some voters see his celebrity as an indication of style over substance, we would argue that this style is the very substance that elevates his candidacy above the rest of the GOP field. Trump’s unique brand of media ubiquity—whether on social media or primetime TV— lends him a highly valuable ability to both understand what Americans want and enact change to satisfy those needs.”
The only problem is that none of the people in the photo are with The Harvard Crimson, and the real editors of the newspaper do not endorse Donald Trump. Steven Lee, president of The Harvard Crimson told Boston “with full certainty” that several pictured are writers with the Harvard Lampoon. The photo seems to be taken inside of one of Trump’s properties, the Trump Tower, in New York City.
In early June, the prized editor’s wooden chair was discovered to be stolen from The Harvard Crimson offices. The newspaper has a longstanding rivalry with the Harvard Lampoon. Lampoon staffers prize The Crimson’s chair, while The Crimson covets the Lampoon’s metal Ibis bird. The fate of the chair and the reason for its disappearance were a mystery, until the photo appeared.
What’s amazing is that the writers with the Harvard Lampoon were actually able to convince Donald Trump and his campaign that they were with The Harvard Crimson and hoodwink Trump into posing with them; a move that did not impress the billionaire. A member of the Trump campaign reportedly called the group from the Harvard Lampoon, “Fraudsters and liars,” but admitted that it only wasted, “a few minutes.”
Lee said of the prank, “I think this is all in good fun. We all had a good laugh at it.”
Donald Trump has surprised political analysts since first declaring his presidential run on June 16. Early observers predicted that Trump would not be seen as a serious candidate, and he has been the subject of a considerable amount of satire. Few political commentators could have predicted Trump’s surge to lead Republican candidates. As of July 30, Trump had the support of 25 percent of voters. Jeb Bush, currently behind Trump, has the support of only 12 percent.
[Lampoon Staff Prank Screenshot Courtesy thecrimson.co – Trump Photo by Jeff J Mitchell / Getty Images]
