After Donald Trump made headlines once again last week, people online were shocked that beleaguered former President was still making waves three years after losing the 2020 election. Chief amongst those left surprised was viral internet sensation Randy Rainbow.
In a new interview with The Los Angeles Times, published on Wednesday (April 5), Rainbow talked about his latest parody video “Grumpy Trumpy Felon From Jamaica In Queens,” where the singer roasted Trump to the tune of the Andrews Sisters’ “Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy” after the former president’s indictment by a Manhattan grand jury. As Rainbow tells it, he was torn between surprise and resignation when it came time for him to once again make fun of Trump.
“To some extent it’s bizarre and to some extent it makes complete sense,” he said. “As long as there are stories and this kind of circus, they’re going to keep putting him in the news. Because people like keeping up with this ridiculous saga … this might not be popular to say out loud, but this is entertaining as [expletive] hell. We want to see how it will end, and it never ends!”
As for the song parody itself, Rainbow said that he found himself struggling with nailing the classic jazz track for his parody. “Musically, the song is trickier than I thought. It’s not just all about the politics,” he said. “It was a bit of a vocal lesson figuring out how to sing it. It took me half a day to find right the key.”
In the years since Trump left office, Rainbow has largely turned his sights onto other members of the GOP, including Marjorie Taylor Green, George Santos, Kevin McCarthy, Ted Cruz and Lindsey Graham, while only occasionally doubling back to jab at Trump. “Even for the nine minutes that he was not in the headlines, there was no shortage of nonsense coming out of D.C.,” Rainbow explained. “I had plenty of material to choose from … all these ‘Dick Tracy’ villains that Trump unleashed.”
Rainbow’s parody video came just after Trump was officially indicted on Thursday, March 30, becoming the first former president to face criminal charges. The full indictment, released to the public on Tuesday (April 4) showed that Trump was facing 34 felony charges of falsifying business records in the first degree, specifically related to the former Apprentice host’s alleged hush-money payments made to Stormy Daniels during his 2016 presidential campaign.
With the 2024 presidential election looming large, and Trump still vying for the Republican nomination, Rainbow made it clear that while he remains skeptical that the former president will face serious repercussions for his actions, he doesn’t think he will ever be president again. “I never quite believe that anything will really catch up with him,” he said. “But I can’t imagine him back in White House at this point.”
Read Rainbow’s full interview here, and watch his latest parody video below.
