How London has ridiculed Trump during his first year as president

Unbelievably, inexplicably, it has been a year of Trump in the White House.

It has not been a year of ups and downs. It has been a year of relentless braggadocio, red button threats, a year of talks about Russia and alleged affairs with porn stars. Democracy has become something to subvert; healthcare something to cut. There have been liberties taken with, well, liberty. His supporters find successes on the very edges of failure: the Government has not shut down (oopsy-daisy, now it has), the stock market has not collapsed, there haven’t been any new wars. Besides, haven’t you seen his numbers on Twitter?

London, for its part, has done its bit to laugh at the unyielding awfulness of it all. Not counting those emails I’ve deleted – and I’d say, generally, I delete about half of what comes in – I’ve had 636 messages about the Donald in the past year. Not so many, you might think, but then, still plenty for someone who does the bar reviews. There were many serious protests again the 45th president, including the women’s march and the anti-Trump march at the US embassy, but below is the best of when we’ve taken the mick, since the world waved goodbye to Obama and shook its head in disbelief at President Orange.

That time… an entire theatre festival slated him, immediately

This time last year, Theatre503’s Trump festival was already underway. The three day festival speculated about the first 100 days of Trump presidency – back in brighter days, when 100 days seemed all the world might put up with – and featured works from Caryl Churchill, Roy Williams and Neil LaBute and others. Everything from black American voters to sexual politics were explored, right as he was being sworn in because, as the theatre reasoned, “why wait… this feels like a dangerous awakening.”

That time... his tweets inspired an entire generation of artists

As Jessie Thompson wrote in July, “Students showcasing their work at the University of the Arts London’s summer shows revealed a particular interest in giving the controversial president a sick burn.”

Highlights included 1984 rewritten using his quotes, a jewellery collection touching on the ‘special relationship’ – good grief – between Theresa May and Trump and a saw that turned every time the president tweeted, eventually cutting off its own power supply. If only life were to imitate art.

That time… a bar opened up just to mock the man – twice

In August, Lizzie Edmonds reported a bar designed to look like Donald Trump’s $100 million New York penthouse opened up in Richmix, Shoreditch, offering the capital a chance to poke fun at the president. It was called Twumps, had a gold desk with love letters to Russian president Vladimir Putin and donated 50p from every drink sold to charities which help people the organisers deemed to have been adversely affected by the Trump presidency.

No surprise, it was a hit and Luke Abrahams picked up the story in November, when it returned for two weeks – this time in Stoke Newington – promising a live Twump twitter feed, a Mexican menu and cocktails like the Nuclear Negroni. There were also drag acts; good thing Trump wasn’t there himself; who knows what kind of hush money he might have found himself paying. We can only wonder.

That time… a cartoon mocking Trump won a prize at the V&A

In May, at the 2017 V&A Illustration awards, A. Richard Allen was awarded the Moira Gemmill illustrator of the year prize, as well as best editorial illustration, for a piece which used Trump’s unsettling quiff in a satirical riff on Katsushika Hokusai’s Great Wave. Giving Trump’s hair even more independence than usual, the image (above) shows a blonde wave rising high above an unsettled sea and a boat of scared faces. How apt. Nice, too, that Allen could win £8,000 for digging into a man who seemingly has looked to Troll Dolls to inspire his barber. Apt, as the cartoon originally appeared in the Sunday Telegraph Money.

That time… a burrito chain trolled his silliest plan

Though before the election, Italy had their national dish insulted as Donald Trump’s face became a pizza, and there were countless cocktails mixed up with punning references to him, perhaps the funniest dish in his name has come from Mexican fast food shack Benito's Hat. Being sold now until January 27 across London, their new burrito, the trollingly titled “The Wall” has more than a 1kg of rice, beans, chicken, braised pork, chipotle grilled steak, beef brisket, guacamole and more. It’s not just the name which should get under Donald’s skin: 10 per cent of every sale will be donated to the Mexican border and social justice charity, Border Angels which, given there are people who have been stopped for traffic violations, deported to Mexico and ended up burned alive, is more important than ever.