Pareene has been a frequent critic of President Donald Trump . At varying times Pareene has referred to Trump as a " fictional television clown tycoon " , " a living freak show " and " a weird attention-hungry idiot . " On August 15 , 2012 Trump criticized Pareene on Twitter as a " lightweight reporter " who is a " total joke in political circles " . Over the previous week Trump had been alluding to a " very , very major " surprise for the 2012 Republican National Convention that would be " unique and interesting " . Pareene had written that Trump 's surprise " is almost definitely just going to be some idiotic video where Trump ' fires ' a Barack Obama impersonator . " One day later , Obama impersonator Kevin Michel posted on his Twitter feed a picture of himself with Trump and advised his followers to " watch the Republican National Convention " , prompting some news outlets to conjecture that Trump was upset that Pareene had accurately predicted his surprise . When interviewed by '' Politico '' about Trump 's criticism , Pareene responded , " I was hoping the first universally loathed NBC personality to publicly call me out would be the monkey from '' Animal Practice '' , but I 'll settle for Trump . "
2012 Republican National Convention
2012 Republican National Convention
Alex Pareene