'Not one of us:' Professional clown community rejects Trump comparison

Clowns are pushing back after years of being compared to President Donald Trump, with Tim Cunningham, board president of the nonprofit organization Clowns Without Borders, saying the insult cheapens what he calls a “sacred art form.”

“Let’s find a better metaphor to despise and depose fascism,” Cunningham wrote in an op-ed published Thursday in The Washington Post. “Keep ‘clown’ out of Trumpian comparisons, and for that matter, all politics. Offer ‘clown’ the respect it deserves and invoke us for good: in alliance with other artists, activists and humans who believe in a better, happier world.”

Launched in 1995, Clowns Without Borders is a nonprofit organization that performs clown shows for communities in hardship, often those ravaged by natural disasters or armed conflict. Cunningham, who joined the organization in 2023, recently performed for children in Beirut, Lebanon following Israel’s invasion of the country last October, and air strikes that leveled apartment buildings and damaged hospitals.

So with Cunninham and his clown colleagues considering their shows acts of “healing, empathy and reflection,” he urged those in the political sphere to consider an alternative nickname for Trump going forward.

“For centuries clowns have been uniting people in laughter, levity and creativity. That’s what real clowns have to offer. If you’re still stuck on the broken comparison ingrained in our national dialogue, here’s an alternative: Try ‘buffoon.’”

Comparisons of Trump to a clown have been common over the years. Actor Robert De Niro branded Trump a “coward and a clown” in 2024; MSNBC Host Lawrence O’Donnell called Trump a “humiliated clown” in April; and political strategist James Carville called the Trump administration a “clown show” in May.

“Our joyful work has been diminished into an insult; every election season, the word ‘clown’ resurfaces to compare tumultuous Washington politics to a circus,” Cunningham wrote. “Political commentators and social media users are not the only ones who wrongfully sling this jibe. “Clown” is used by almost everyone to belittle those seen as foolish or incompetent. The more we mistreat the word, the more we lose understanding of a sacred art form.”