Trump as Professional Wrestler: This American Carnage

Donald Trump is confident and clear:  Bad is Bad, and he is Good because he is bad and he knows bad when he sees it.

Let me explain.

On July 7, 1996 Hulk Hogan switched roles.   He went from being the personification to all that is good to being bad. He became arrogant and conniving.  He became a winner, and the crowds loved it.  

In the terms of professional wrestling, he became the "heel", the guy you love to watch because he is willing to do anything.

Donald Trump understood the simple direct appeal of archetype roles in public performance.     Politics is the struggle between good and evil.  So is professional wrestling and some commedia dell'arte.

Donald Trump is the "heel," the character in professional wrestling who is the villain or rogue.  The heel is allowed to lie, cheat, use illegal methods, bully, be a loudmouth, be arrogant and in general arrogantly flout the rules.  He can be flamboyant, he can be a soviet or a pretty-boy or an arrogant bully.  He is interesting.  The heel need not apologize for outrageous behavior; he proves his authenticity by parading his excesses.  He is bad and he knows it and is proud of it.

Donald Trump, like Hulk Hogan, went from "kayfabe", a scripted fake set of moves, to a "shoot", which is an unscripted move which gets integrated into the script and becomes real.  Voters found the Trump act appealing.   Trump, in the over the top character of a professional wrestler, was the heel who shouted down the hypocrites and fellow villains around him, thus becoming a kind of hero.   

In professional wrestling, in art, in movies, on TV, and in life a heel can become a hero.  Trump is a heel hero. It takes a thief to catch a thief.  It takes a powerful political player to understand how the powerful players play.  They use the bankruptcy rules.  They troll the media by announcing they will make a big announcement then use the entire time as an infomercial for a new hotel.   Fooled you!  

 Donald Trump could be honest because he didn't have to lie.   He made his ties in China, that was the game.  He groped women.  He married younger and younger wives.  He went bankrupt and made out like a bandit.  He knew the rules.

Gorgeous George: an early heel, perfumed and coifed.

Donald Trump played the classic professional wrestling role: being himself writ large, very large.   Trump is not nuanced.  He is clear.  When he dislikes something he says it is absolutely terrible, the worst, disgusting.

Trump as president is a continuation of Trump the campaigner: the bully who knows what he hates.

He is our bully.  He hates what a great many Americans hate: waste, Muslims, "bad dudes", taxes, bad trade deals, Obamacare.   He flouts the rules so that we both win, Trump and America.

Trump Understood Politics as Spectacle and Ratings

In an exclusive interview with his web house organ, Breitbart, Donald Trump talked directly and unfiltered.  It is instructive to see him at work, continuing the tone that worked to demolish his primary opponents and then Hillary:    Transcript

**** "The fake media":  "The fake media is the enemy of the American people."

**** The New York Times:  "The intent is so evil and so bad. . . . I call them the failing New York Times and they write lies."

**** Obamacare:  "the disaster known as Obamacare because it's a complete and total disaster."

**** Middle East:  "The Middle East is a mess."

**** North Korea: "North Korea is a mess."

**** Border:  "Our border is a total disaster."

**** Trade: "Our trade deals are beyond bad--beyond bad.  The result looks like they were negotiated by children."

**** Military: "Our military is depleted.  Our equipment is old and tired."

Trump understood American media better than did the media itself.   Television is entertainment and Trump entertains.   We enjoy our anti-heroes, from JR on Dallas to Walter White on Breaking Bad to Don Draper on Mad Men.   

Donald Trump is a heel who calls out the other heels and promises to smash them.  America cannot help but watch.