Anyone for a Nuclear Negroni? Millennials flock to Trump-bashing Twump Bar

You can't turn for seeing President Donald Trump's face glaring at you with his blue-steel pout. It's like the Mona Lisa - he's always watching. It's quite off-putting when you're trying to enjoy an after-work Negroni. 

It's a Thursday evening at TWUMPS bar in Shoreditch, east London - a pop-up event running for three nights to raise money for charities working to combat the effects of the Trump administration. The bar is decked out to look like Trump's penthouse apartment at Trump Towers, New York, with the view over Central Park stuck onto one of the pieces of MDF that have been used to build the room. 

The Trump theme leaks onto the drinks menu where you can choose between a 'Nuclear Negroni', 'Trump Tower Whiskey Sour', 'Combover', 'Moscow (was responsible for the election result) Mule', 'Paris Deal Prosecco' and 'Mexican Wall Margarita'. 

The bar is crammed with ties-off millennials snickering at the inventive cocktail names, Instagramming the nightmarish portraits of the Trump family or deliberating on how to plot Trump's downfall from the comfort of their east London habitat.

The 'Combover' - a rum-based drink with rhubarb and ginger cordial, lime juice and pineapple juice - is fresh and zesty, the premium ingredients courtesy of the East London Liquor Company paying off. However it's not very strong and well, damn, it's a Thursday; I want to be knocked out of my chair. 

The 'Paris Deal Prosecco' is mixed with a dash of strawberry and sage cordial, which leaves a pleasant sweetness at the bottom of the glass.

Tom Hughes, who created the cocktail menu, says the 'Mexican Wall Margarita' - mezcal, tequila, lime juice and agave syrup - is his favourite. "It's smoky and smooth and not overly sweet' he says. 

It is also luminous like something from Goosebumps, and taps into my rational fear of any drink with a garish hue.

The taste has a palatable medicinal quality like drinking watered down Lemsip. Its main ingredient, mezcal, is a distilled liquor made from the agave plant. 

And while, for most other bars, the drinks are the star of the show, they're put in the shade by the surroundings, and more specifically the great detail the organisers have put in slighting Trump at every opportunity. 

Titles on the bookshelf include The Dark Charisma of Adolf Hitler, The Selfish Capitalist, The Koran for Dummies, American Politics for Dummies, Twitter for Dummies. There's a picture book of Trump's favourite thing to *ahem* grab.

A forensic investigation board, like the sort of thing you see in police procedurals, has Trump's likes and dislikes detailed. A picture of a topless Vladimir Putin riding a horse is good, while Kim Jong-un and Sir Alan Sugar (for trying to steal Trump's job) are bad.

While you find yourself ignoring your cocktail to set out on a personal Trump easter egg hunt, the fact that the event is working with charities that can actually make a difference is what makes all this worthwhile. 

Marie Stopes International, one of the charities benefiting from the event, provide contraception and abortion services in 37 countries (including the US). The organisation has recently seen its US government funding cut by $30 million since Trump came into power. 

"People are under the assumption that the Trump administration has cut funding for abortion," says Kylie Harrison, senior PR advisor at Marie Stopes International, "but in actual fact, the US has never funded abortion. What is actually happening is the cuts are being made in the support services which help women make informed decisions about abortion."

So while we may chuckle at the drink names and pictures of Putin raising up a baby Trump like Simba in the Lion King, the event allows London's after-work crowd to contribute to combating the effects of the Trump administration. And all while enjoying a Negroni in a gaudy, gold room.