Trumps Forgotten TV And Movie Cameos Are Chillingly Revealing

Illustration: Damon Dahlen/HuffPost; Photos: GettyPlenty of times, watching a piece of pop culture from the past means wincing at the parts of it that haven’t aged well.But there is something particularly jolting about stumbling upon a Donald Trump cameo in a show or a movie.

The one that lives rent-free in my brain is when he pops up in the second season of HBO’s “Sex and the City.” It’s in an episode called “The Man, The Myth, The Viagra,” which aired in the summer of 1999.Advertisement At a bar, Samantha (Kim Cattrall) makes eye contact with a much older man, who’s meeting with Trump about a possible business deal.We hear Carrie (Sarah Jessica Parker) say in her voice-over narration: “Samantha, a Cosmopolitan, and Donald Trump: You just don’t get more New York than that.”“I’ve gotta go,” Trump tells the man.

“But think about it.I’ll be at my office at Trump Tower.”When Trump leaves, the much older man sidles up to Samantha.

“I was so distracted by your beauty, I think I just agreed to finance Mr.Trump’s new project,” he tells her.

“You owe me $150 million.”The rest of the episode proceeds as most “Sex and the City” episodes go: Samantha’s dating mishaps with the man, who turns out to have erectile dysfunction, become the subject of discussion among the four main characters.When it aired, most viewers likely didn’t think much of Trump’s cameo.

But like all things Trump, when watching the episode now — or at any point since he began running for president in 2015 — his brief appearance takes on a much more disorienting tenor.(For fans of the show, it’s also jarring to see it alongside the episode’s far more important plotline: Miranda (Cynthia Nixon) meeting her eventual husband Steve (David Eigenberg), who is widely regarded as one of the only good “Sex and the City” boyfriends.)Advertisement While Trump mercifully does not appear any other time on the series, his presence makes sens...