Veep showrunner: Selina Meyer is just like Donald Trump

Because of the current rabid, bizarre political climate, the cast and crew behind ‘Veep’ are seemingly asked about their reactions and thoughts on Donald Trump and his presidency every time they step foot in front of a microphone.

It’s unsurprising really, because over the last five seasons ‘Veep’ has done a stellar job of satirising the White House and presidency, all of which seemed way too outlandish to ever actually come true. Donald Trump’s first two months in office have put that notion to bed, but while showrunner David Mandel has already made it clear that ‘Veep’ won’t actively reference the current President of the United States he has now insisted that the show already has two characters that are very similar to him anyway.

Mandel, who replaced creator Armando Ianucci as ‘Veep’s’ head-honcho for its fifth season, told Recode that both Jonah Ryan and, played by Tim Simons, and Julia Louis-Dreyfus’ Selina Meyer both mirror Donald Trump.

“We often get a lot of questions about Trump, and we’ve talked about how Jonah Ryan is our Trump-esque character,” Mandel explained, “But I think people often forget that Selina Meyer has been Trump for five years, which is to say, somebody speaking about the working man who doesn’t actually want to touch the working man.”

Seems a little bit harsh on Selina Meyer if you ask me. I mean, at least she won the popular vote. The one glint of hope to take from David Mandel’s comments, though, is that maybe the parallels run even deeper and hopefully Donald Trump’s presidency will end up being just as short as Selina’s eight-month tenure in office.

We’ll get to see how Selina Meyer is faring out of office when ‘Veep’ returns next month. And while we’re still waiting for an official return date, it should be shortly after it airs in the US on April 16, 2017.