Understanding the Trump Show

The next session I’m seeing at ICA 2018 is on the U.S. national trauma that is the Trump Presidency. We start with Laurie Ouellette, and she begins with the (fake) story of Trump signing on to a reality TV show based around the Trump White House. This actually confused some readers given that the premise of the show seemed uncannily familiar; reality TV or not, the Trump Presidency is a media spectacle whose political logics cannot be fully separated from those of reality TV and social media. The Presidency is a hyperreal Trump Show.

Understanding the Presidency as a TV show in which we’re all expected to play a part also opens up new opportunities for engagement and contest action, however: we can see his flagging opinion polling as a drop in ratings that may engender new political plot lines in order to keep the audience tuned in, for example. This can be linked to Baudrillard’s concept of Telemorphosis, from which the Trump Show distracts us.

At the same time, with Foucault we might also see the Trump Presidency as a form of grotesque sovereignty: Trump is ridiculous, odious, despicable, and abnormal in the way that Nero was, but is still able to maximise power; Trump is the first telemorphised grotesque sovereign. He is simultaneously discredited as a hyperreal caricature, and a fake President, but this also intensifies the grotesque elements of his Presidency.

This can be understood through observation and detection techniques, which are routinely mobilised to prove Trump’s idiocy and ineptitude, and is enabled by his own overplaying of the Presidential role: his own self-presentation is grotesque, and has been since well before he became President; observation can therefore also reach back to past events.

Additionally, spectacularisation and savviness is highlighted by the presentation of the Presidency as a reality TV show, which has become a trope of mainstream media coverage. This simultaneously discredits Trump, but also revels in the spectacle.

Finally, resonance and affect also plat a role here. The Trump Show creates substantial emotional responses, even from seasoned TV reporters and commenters, and produces viral emotional statements from activists and others affected by the Presidency’s policies. This doesn’t challenge the idea that good governance will be restored once Trump leaves office, however, even though there is little indication of any change at this stage.