“The View” co-hosts cheered and applauded during Monday’s Halloween special as little kids crossed the stage wearing costumes resembling things and people associated with the Mar-a-Lago raid.
Two children walked out dressed as FBI agents and another boy, standing between the “agents,” walked out wearing a Trump-style wig and a costumed toilet containing flushed documents labeled “SECRET.” The children represented the FBI’s raid on the home of former President Donald Trump in August to retrieve “classified” documents requested by the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) and the Department of Justice (DOJ).
The toilet referenced photographs allegedly showing that the former president flushed documents in the White House, according to CNN. Though it is unknown what the documents were, they reportedly appeared to be covered in Trump’s handwriting in black marker. Trump has repeatedly denied these allegations.
The costumes were designed by the program’s wardrobe supervisor, Ashley Alderfer Kaufman, and were “inspired by” 2022’s “hottest topics.”
Another child walked across the stage representing Hollywood actor Will Smith slapping Chris Rock at the Oscars after Rock made a joke about Smith’s wife, Jada Pinkett Smith’s, lack of hair. The kid walked out in a gold suit, gold face paint and a red handprint on the right cheek.
“Now, we do not want to endorse violence of any kind, but we couldn’t help but talk about one of the hottest hot topics of this year,” Kaufman said. “So we have our interpretation, we have an Oscar statue, we call it the Oscar Slap.”
Smith apologized to Rock and his family following a public uproar over the incident. Following the slap, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences implemented a 10-year ban on Smith from all Academy events.