Netflix’s New 'House of Cards' Trailer Is Cheap Trump Fear-Bait

Emotions are riding high on Inauguration Day now that Donald Trump has officially become the President of the United States. So, naturally, Netflix thought it would be a good idea to capitalize on people’s very real fears of what a Trump presidency means for their health care, rights, and the environment by shilling House of Cards.

The trailer, which dropped on Twitter at 10:30 a.m. Eastern on Friday, features a shot of an upside-down American flag waving in front of the Capitol, accompanied by a creepy soundtrack and reading of the Pledge of Allegiance. The tagline for the trailer is “we make the terror,” which, like this whole endeavor, seems more than a little tasteless.

House of Cards’s main problem is that the show, which started out okay and then went downhill extremely quickly, is utterly irrelevant now that Trump is president. Trump’s alleged connections and definite coziness with Russia, not to mention his past sexual predation, far outpace anything that Kevin Spacey’s Frank Underwood can throw at viewers. (Though I will concede that Trump has never pushed anyone in front of a train — as far as we know.)

With reality being as insane and unpredictable as it is — seriously, a former reality TV show host who led a campaign claiming Barack Obama wasn’t born in America and bragged about sexual assault on camera is the president — it’s telling that Netflix needs to piggyback its supposedly dystopian view of Washington, D.C. on the real deal.

Anyway, Season 5 of House of Cards drops on May 30, 2017. Donald Trump’s presidency starts now.