The Making Sense
The Acting President
It should not surprise us if voters are as much persuaded by the charisma of a politician’s personal performance as by their policies. Neither should it surprise us that actors have sometimes successfully made the move from showbiz to the business of government. President Reagan and Governor Schwarzenegger are well-known examples. Sometimes the substance exceeds the show, as it does in the case of the actor Volodymyr Zelensky who went on to become the celebrated wartime President of Ukraine. With other performers, a spectacular show might make up for lesser substance. What John L. Styan observed in relation to theatrical acting is equally true of political performance: “[a] profound idea only partly communicated is as nothing against a shallow one wholly communicated: content, form and medium cannot be judged apart” (Drama, Stage and Audience, 1975). Early modern rhetorician Thomas Wilson made much the same point when he observed that “an eloquent man being smally learned” can be much more persuasive than “a great learned clarke…wanting words to set forth his meaning” (The Arte of Rhetorique, 1553). Donald Trump has been a major beneficiary of voters’ susceptibility to persuasive political performance, and his performative prowess might be said to have overcome what Wilson calls small learning and Styan calls ideas of a shallow sort. What Donald Trump lacks in political education he has made up for through practical experience in the entertainment industry, and especially through his role as host of the popular programme The Apprentice. The format of that show – in which business hopefuls compete for the chance of employment in Trump’s business empire – is one that encourages conflict, egocentricity, autocracy, and snap judgments of a career-defining sort. It was ideal preparation for the President he became.
Zeke J Miller, “Rick Perry Calls Donald Trump a Cancer and Carnival Act” Time 22 July 2015 (Read)
Ed Wallis and Ania Skrzypek-Claassens (eds), Back to Earth: Reconnecting People and Politics (London: The Fabian Society, 2014) pp.9-10. (Read)
The Dick Cavett Show 11 November 1981 (Watch)
The Beat with Ari Melber MSNBC (transcript, 8/13/2018) (Read)
Scaramouche – Wikipedia (Read)
Stock Characters of La Commedia dell’Arte (Read)
Rob Kuznia, Curt Devine, Nelli Black, and Drew Griffin, “Stop the Steal’s massive disinformation campaign connected to Roger Stone” CNN November 14 2020 (Read)
Donald Trump Rally Speech Transcript Rome, Georgia November 1 (Read)
Michelle Obama, speech at the Democratic Convention Monday 25 July 2016 (Read)
Trump is the ‘master of body language’, Sky News Australia (Read)
How to do Jazz Hands – Beginning Jazz Steps | YouDance.com (at 36s)
[Donald Trump’s hand gestures can be compared to ‘Jazz Hands’] (Watch)
Michael Lempert, “Barack Obama, being sharp: Indexical order in the pragmatics of precision-grip gesture” (2011) 11.3 Gesture 241–270, 246(Read) (subscription to external site required)
Donald Trump press conference 17 Feb 2017, Guardian News(Watch)
What Donald Trump’s hand gestures say about him – BBC News Aug 17, 2016 (Read)
What Donald Trump’s hand gestures say about him – BBC News (YouTube) (Watch)
Trump’s Looming Onstage Presence in Presidential Debate | Election 2016 | The New York Times (Watch)
Eileen Reynolds, “What if Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton Had Swapped Genders?” 28 Feb 2017 (Read)
Pulcinella ieri e oggi (Read)
(subscription to external site required)
Donald Trump complains he deserves a Nobel prize: ‘They gave one to Obama’, 24 Sept 2019, The Guardian (Read)
Donald Trump and Mike Pence Sit Down With David Muir, ABC News (Watch)
Sally Pook, Comedy reveals almost all of Blair’s early ambitions to be Mick Jagger 03 November 2005 (Read)
Trudeau arrives in Cornwall, U.K. ahead of G7 summit, Global News (Read)
