Liam Richards Researcher Associate at Centre for Politics and Media Research and a BA Politics student at Bournemouth University.
Email: liamrichards1975@ googlemail.com
“TrumpDASHIAN” – the US election as an
extension of The Apprentice?
The US election has been dubbed the nastiest election in recent US history with both candidates’ attacking each other at any opportunity. But this does not seems too different to other elections of the past, mud slinging has always been a big part of the US debates. However, you would be forgiven in thinking you are watching another amusing boardroom firing session, as Trump’s behaviour can be likened to that of an Apprentice contestant, not a US presidential candidate.
Donald Trump, host of “Apprentice“, his brash, masculine and dominant persona suits the reality TV show genre. We’ve grown to accept these larger than life characters that are “just being honest” and “real”. Reality TV shows are great to watch, a guilty pleasure perhaps, but the outcomes are of no consequence to us as citizens. But this is the US presidential election, the contest to become leader of the free world with an unsurmountable level of responsibility. This surely should not be performed ina similar way to a reality TV show format, but a decision based on well thought through policies and political experience.
Trump says he prides himself on being “honest, real, the anti-politician” – sound familiar. Donald Trump’s style seems more akin to Kim Kardashian, than the qualities required for a world leader. He doesn’t have the qualifications or expe- rience for a higher office, his plan and proposed policies are lacking in substance and most likely won’t see the light of the day. Instead, he is offering to American people an “Apprentice” style show, this special brand of positives (everything Donald Trump) against all of the negatives that he sees in both the current president,the Obama-care policy and the “weak economy” and his immediate opponent Hilary Clinton.
In the Apprentice we see candidates competing with each other to demonstrate they possess the qualities required to be a great busi- nessman or woman or the best business leadership skills, although this can come across as excessive or childlike. Candidates regularly bicker and attack each other’s personal and professional persona in the board room. We see this channelled through- out the primaries with him shooting down other candidates one by one. Now using the same tactics in the election, we see him try to dominate and intimidate his opponent with his very aggressive approach, with humiliation added to the mix. He seems to have forgotten that he has a duty to offer the American people facts and well thought out policies. Rather Trump seems happy to offend almost everyone, African- Americans, Mexicans (with his big great Trump wall), woman, Muslims- calling for a complete Muslim ban , Latinos, President Obama, and soldiers.
Recent interviews with Jimmy Kimmel and then Jimmy Fallon contain Donald Trumps’ monolog about his successful businesses, himself
and of course all things beautiful. The presidential candidate never misses an opportunity to remind us how much he achieved in the business world and how he can use this knowledge and experience to make America great again! He is reorienting the qualifications required for US President. It is much easier for the American people to relate to business success than political success, such as Hilary achievements as Sectary of State, as often most things go on behind closed doors. So it may seem plausible that a successful business man could make America great again!
Unlike other candidates who use these shows to improve their rapport with the general public and repair or improve a damaged image, Trump uses these to appear more human. However, Trump seems to do the opposite, reinforcing his reality TV like character an extreme version of a human with extreme views! For instance, when asked about ISIS Donald states that “we should go after their families, wives and children, mothers and sisters”. He doesn’t seem to care that he is publicly suggesting committing war crimes leaving CNN anchor speechless on live TV. It may have appeal, but it lacks the measured approach one might expect of a president.
However, he still has supporters and people seem to relate to him. Is this the power of the all too familiar genre of reality TV style helping to secure the vote of voters that have never voted? He seems familiar, real and honest which is juxtaposed against the secretive and in Trump’s words “corrupt” politician Hilary Clinton. But simultaneously, he is actually alienating large groups of people, inciting fear and spreading hate. But this behaviour is so familiar to us on reality TV, that maybe the audience are desensitised to it, but if this were to become normalised it could be dangerous for democracy. Whether you’re a Democrat, Republican, or a fan of reality TV you surely couldn’t believe Trump is qualified for this monumental responsibility?
Dawid Pekalski Researcher Associate at Centre for Politics and Media Research and a MA International Political Communication student at Bournemouth University. Email: s4926150@bournemouth. ac.uk
Prof John Street Professor of Politics at the University of East Anglia. His most recent book (with Sanna Inthorn and Martin Scott) is From Entertainment to Citizenship: politics and popular culture, Manchester University Press, 2013
Email: [email protected]
We have been deluged with coverage of Donald Trump and his campaign. There are the seemingly endless articles on his pronouncements and his behaviour; each story expressing barely suppressed disbelief that such a person is running for the office of President. And then there are the other pieces, in which reporters earnestly pursue Trump’s voters – the left-behinds of the mid-West and elsewhere, who, despairing of a political system that has failed them, turn to ‘the Donald’ as a saviour who ‘speaks their language’.
But hidden within this coverage is another theme, one that has received less attention, but which runs through both types of story. This is not about who Trump is and who his supporters are, but what he is. It is a truth almost universal- ly recognised that he is not a ‘politician’, either because he fails to meet the standards expected of a democratic representative or because he expresses no desire to be such a figure. But if he is not a poli- tician what is he? What role is he playing?
This question stems, in part, from the notion that the contest for the presidency is not an exercise in straightforward political competi- tion. As the writer George Saunders observed: “American Presidential campaigns are not about ideas; they are about the selection of a hero to embody the prevailing national ethos.”
But this begs a further question, if the aim is to be a ‘hero’, what kind of hero are we talking about? Mark Singer, in his book Trump & Me, twice quotes a Trump associate as saying: “Deep down, he [Trump] wants to be Madonna”. Quite what of Madonna’s many incarnations they have in mind is unclear, but Trump as rock or pop star is a theme taken up by other writers. Jonathan Freedland in the Guardian described finding himself at a Trump rally, in the “standing area directly in front of the stage, a kind of Trumpian moshpit …”
Bob Lefsetz took the analogy one step further in a piece entitled “Trump is a Heavy Metal Band”: “Yes, Donald Trump is a rock star, if you go back to what that once upon a time meant, someone who adhered to his own vision living a rich and famous lifestyle who cared not a whit what others said.” And for Lefsetz, it is the genre that holds the key to Trump’s ability to command an audience: “Metal… Sold out arenas when no one was watching. Ain’t that America, where despite garnering dollars the establishment shies away from that which it believes is unseemly. And the reason metal triumphed was because it was the other, it channelled the audience’s anger, it was for all those closed out of the mainstream, and it turns out there’s plenty of them.”
The music writer Simon Reynolds also sees Trump in the guise of a rock star. Not, though, that of heavy metal, but of glam rock: “Trump surrounds himself with glitz. Trump and the glam rockers share an obsession with fame and
a ruthless drive to conquer and devour the world’s attention.”
For other commentators, the rock star com- parison is swapped for the more traditional ideas of showbusiness. The New Yorker compares the democratic contest to “a long-running Broadway musical” and Freedland talks of Trump rallies as ‘sheer showbiz’. James Poniewozik of the New York Times sees Trump in terms of TV formats: “his tale has remained a kind of ‘80s prime-time soap of as- piration and ego. …. [H]e cited his TV ratings the way another candidate might boast of balancing a state budget. Mr Trump’s primary win was like having a niche hit on cable. …. In programming terms, his campaign is nostalgia based content – that thing you used to like, I’m gonna bring it back again! He’s a classic TV show rebooted for Netflix: that old stuff from back in the day, but edgier and uncensored.”
And, of course, Donald Trump is a reality television star. His role on The Apprentice is key to understanding his ability to play the role of presidential candidate. As David Von Drehle wrote in Time: “the craftier characters of reality TV ex- perience a different kind of stardom from the TV and movie idols of the past. Fans are encouraged to feel that they know these people, not as fictional characters but as flesh and blood.”
In research that colleagues and I conducted we found that young people in the UK saw figures like Alan Sugar and Simon Cowell as credible political leaders. They were seen as tough and decisive, attributes that were seen necessary to effective political leadership. And other political scientists have noted the rise of ‘superstar political celebri- ties’ in the era of ‘anti-politics’.
It might be said that the analogies on which commentators draw are just that – analogies; no more than a literary device. But equally it might be that the role of the politician is indeed becoming that of the rock star. And the answer to the question ‘what is Trump’ is that he is indeed ‘a politician’ after all.
A version of this piece was also published by The Conversation