I have been making P.T. Barnum analogies to explain Donald J. Trump for years. Here, for example, is what I wrote nearly 10 years ago in “Trump for President? Don’t Be a Sucker!” April 8, 2011:
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Donald Trump is nothing more than the P.T. Barnum of business: a huckster who thrives on the notion that ‘there’s a sucker born every minute.’…
We all knew Trump was a self-aggrandizing buffoon. But he has now exposed himself as a self-deluding racist as well.
This is why I urge the rich folks he depends on to patronize his eponymous resorts and buy up his eponymous condominiums to begin shunning him – just as they would a two-bit racist like David Duke. I urge this especially of the black Hollywood and sports stars he likes to feature as extras in his one-man freak show.
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As it happened, from the day he was elected president of the United States, I’ve been obliged to acknowledge that America has more suckers than P.T. Barnum could have ever imagined. Only this explains how Trump has been able to project and gaslight his way through this first term of his presidency. And I can hardly blame him for thinking that his Barnumesque schtick will even see him through the impeachment inquiry his behavior has triggered.
Alas, people just want to be entertained (or, as Barnum coined this primordial desire, “The American people like to be humbugged”).
The phenomenon of Donald Trump says far more about the American people than him. They clearly want to be entertained by the disruptive spectacle he creates and couldn’t care less about the offensive and invariably self-aggrandizing things he tweets or does.
More to the point, the nature of foolish pride is such that, no matter how willfully he betrays them or endangers us, these Trumpasites will be loath to ever admit they were wrong about him. [T]his is especially the case with the evangelicals who betrayed zealous adherence to moral rectitude (and sold their souls) to vote for him.
(“Trumpasites Gagging on the Lies and Promises They Swallowed,” The iPINIONS Journal, January 30, 2017)
Accordingly, I suspect Trump really could murder someone on 5th Avenue in broad daylight and these suckers would excuse it as “Trump being Trump.” I gathered long ago that evangelical Christians would sell what little remains of their souls to curry favor with him – who they now hail as “chosen by God.”
But I am truly surprised that no other political commentator has tagged Trump with Barnum analogies. This is why I feel so vindicated that no less a person than a Barnum biographer has just done so.
Like its subject, Robert Wilson’s book [Barnum: An American Life] has been a magnet for attention and that might be because of another businessman and entertainer turn politician.
‘I have this if nothing else to thank President Trump for. … They’re both New York figures, Barnum was heavily into real estate … his relationship with the truth was quite slippery.’ And Barnum wrote a book called The Art of Money Getting.
(CBS Saturday Morning, September 7, 2019)
Incidentally, I doubt Trump got the Barnumesque allusion in the title to “his” bestselling book called The Art of the Deal. Therefore, his ghost writer and publisher must have had a good laugh at his expense.
But there’s nothing laughable about Barnum being as big an exploiter of the racist sentiments of his day as Trump is of his today. Nothing displayed this quite like Barnum including in his freak show a black slave who he billed as 161 years old.
To be fair, though, when Barnum referred to his ‘greatest show on earth’ he was referring appropriately enough to the circus; whereas when Trump does, he’s referring to the presidency.
Moreover, Barnum had a George Wallace-like conversion. This led him into politics not to enrich himself but to vote for the 13th Amendment, which abolished slavery. But Trump does not appear to have a single moral fiber in his body. Therefore, a similar conversion seems impossible.
Meanwhile, he betrays Tourettes-like projection when he blurts outrage at how “the world is laughing at us.” Except that he’s too narcissistic to notice that the world is just laughing at the joke he’s making of the US presidency.
Case in point is how Finnish newspapers reported on the spectacle that played out when Finland’s president visited the White House last week. Because it featured Trump practically ignoring him to vent a profane, stream-of-conscience tirade against Democrats for daring to launch an impeachment inquiry into his open and notorious high crimes and misdemeanors.
Wednesday’s roller-coaster news conference with President Trump and Finnish President Sauli Niinisto elicited ridicule and some concern in Finland, where many celebrated their leader Thursday for enduring with dignity what they largely described as a Trump monologue [during which he fulminated grievances and thumped braggadocio]. …
Finnish newspaper Hufvudstadsbladet offered a blunt summary of the meeting: ‘Niinisto’s visit was overshadowed by Circus Trump — President Niinisto asked Trump to safeguard U.S. democracy.’
(The Washington Post, October 3, 2019)
This speaks volumes about the mockery Trump has made of America’s reputation as the beacon and guardian of democracy. But, if the Finnish press thought that Oval office monologue was a circus, they should see what now masquerades as press briefings on the south lawn of the White House these days.
Because they feature a sweaty, frothing Trump spewing a fusillade of personal grievances, blatant lies, and idle boasts. He’s invariably bellowing this to rise above the roar of a helicopter’s engines revving up in the background for his departure. And the only role the roped off and baying reporters play is having Trump point to them – not to answer their questions so much as to catch his breath before continuing his fusillade. You can’t make this stuff up, folks.
As I have lamented elsewhere, this is what has become of the traditional White House press conference. But I hasten to reiterate that reporters are willing clowns in this circus.
After all, their TV bosses could inform the White House that they will no longer cover Trump’s histrionics on the south lawn. More to the point, they could insist they will only cover press conferences in settings where reporters can pose orderly and audible questions (e.g., at the White House in the Oval Office, the East Room, or the Brady Press Briefing room).
Again, the problem with all of this norm-busting behavior is that Trump couldn’t care less. Because, as my original commentary indicated, he’s quite happy to turn American politics into a circus, so long as he’s the ring master and people keep watching.
Related commentaries:
Trump for president…
impeachment inquiry…
evangelical Republicans…
Trumpasites…
projection…
birther Trump…