‘South Park’ mocks Trump over Homeland Security’s ICE recruitment post
“South Park” trolled President Donald Trump after Homeland Security used a show screenshot in an ICE recruitment post.
“South Park” isn’t done sticking it to President Donald Trump.
The Comedy Central series celebrated its Emmy win for outstanding animated program on Sept. 6 by sending a brutal message directly to the president. The most recent two seasons of “South Park” were heavily focused on Trump, who became a central villain character in a storyline where he is romantically involved with Satan.
A post on the show’s official Instagram account after the Emmy win showed the series’ animated Trump character with his pants down holding an Emmy, along with the text, “You finally got your Emmy.”
USA TODAY has reached out to the White House for comment.
Trump has a history of complaining about never winning an Emmy for his NBC series “The Apprentice.” The show received eight nominations throughout its run, including for outstanding reality competition program. But it always came up empty-handed, a fact Trump often took issue with on social media.
“The Emmys are all politics, that’s why, despite nominations, ‘The Apprentice’ never won — even though it should have many times over,” Trump tweeted in 2012, also writing that “The Amazing Race” winning the Emmy for best competition program that year was “a total joke.”
Trump’s bad blood with the Emmys even came up during the 2016 presidential election. During their final presidential debate, Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton argued Trump often falsely claims that things are “rigged against him” and pointed out, “There was even a time when he didn’t get an Emmy for his TV program three years in a row, and he started tweeting that the Emmys were rigged.”
“Should have gotten it,” Trump quipped.
“South Park” received the Emmy for outstanding animated program this year for the first time since 2013. The victory came after the show in 2025 reoriented its entire central storyline around skewering Trump.
That newfound focus began in a July 2025 episode, where Trump was introduced as an over-the-top villain who is in a romantic relationship with Satan and is portrayed as an evil, thin-skinned bully. The show also introduced parodies of various members of Trump’s administration, including former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and FCC Chair Brendan Carr. Vice President JD Vance was also a recurring character, depicted as Trump’s servant in a spoof of Tattoo from “Fantasy Island.”
The White House initially responded to the Trump parody in 2025 by saying in a statement shared with USA TODAY that “this show hasn’t been relevant for over 20 years and is hanging on by a thread with uninspired ideas in a desperate attempt for attention,” adding, “President Trump has delivered on more promises in just six months than any other president in our country’s history – and no fourth-rate show can derail President Trump’s hot streak.”
“South Park” is set to return for its new season on Sept. 16. It’s unclear how much the show will continue focusing on Trump in its upcoming episodes. But during an Emmy campaign event in Los Angeles in May, cocreator Trey Parker said that when people told him and cocreator Matt Stone to move on from parodying Trump, that only made them want to mock him more.
“We laid into him so hard, and the thing became: ‘Well, who’s the bully now?’ It became this just totally juvenile joke of like, ‘We’re not going to stop. We’re going to do it every single week,'” Parker said. “Even when everyone’s like, ‘OK, guys, move on,’ [we’re] like, ‘Nope, we’re not moving on. We’re going to keep going, going, going.'”
Contributing: Anthony Robledo, USA TODAY