It’s a big mistake to compare Donald Trump to other presidents. A more apt reference point is Trump as the longtime star of “The Apprentice,” a highly successful reality show where Trump “played” the role of a business tycoon and learned the fine art of grabbing and holding people’s attention.
If Trump is about anything, it’s about grabbing and holding people’s attention— the more he can grab the better.
The Oval Office, that global center of power, is the ideal studio for the world’s ultimate reality show. For a power-tripping attention junkie like Trump, this is his pinnacle, and the man can’t get enough.
Have you noticed how Trump spends so much time with the media, answering some questions, dodging others, but always letting everyone know this is his show? He’ll weigh in on the most consequential matters, like the war in Ukraine or bombing Iran, with the casual flair of someone who knows he holds all the cards and can afford to be coy, impulsive and keep everyone guessing.
Trump’s whole game is to show off his power. That’s his victory. That’s what turns him on the most—throwing his considerable weight around while the world watches.
As the consummate showman, Trump also knows he needs a good narrative arc, and “Make America Great Again” has stood the test of time. In his second term, he has unleashed that theme with a vengeance, casting his show with loyal cronies and going after any enemy he feels deserves it.
It must be deflating to hear such superficial motives for the world’s most important job, and I take no pleasure in sharing it. But we are what shapes us, and for the 14 years before he first ran for president, Trump’s definition of success was TV ratings. The man learned that feeding his giant ego would also maximize those ratings, and he picked up all the tricks—constant drama, constant conflict, constant suspense.
“The show, the episode, the season has to keep moving with new reveals and by lobbing bombs of surprise—or you lose the audience,” former New Yorker editor Tina Brown writes about Trump’s show. “In the first six months of his second term, American politics have become an unending season of Orange Lotus.”
Go through the endless episodes we’ve witnessed– the love affair with Musk and then the falling out, the tariff wars, Liberation Day, Signalgate, slick cabinet picks from TV studios, humiliation of Ukraine’s president, assault on undocumented workers, court battles, shakedown of global leaders, renaming the Gulf of Mexico, threatening to take over countries, accepting a $400 million private jet from Qatar, using his position to build family business, changing positions on major issues, and on and on.
What many people see as irresponsible, reckless, incompetent and even illegal, Trump sees as a continuing drama that gets boffo ratings. He has grabbed the world’s attention, day after day, hour after hour, and he doesn’t plan to let go.
And since he sincerely believes he’s doing it all for the benefit of his country, well, even more reason not to let go.
Does this cynical view of an egomaniac president matter?
It does for me. Seeing Trump as a power-addicted, narcissistic showman takes the edge off the Hitler comparisons and the over-the-top takes of Trump as the evil destroyer of democracy.
These evil takes are not useful, in part because it becomes virtually impossible to give Trump any credit for any good he might do. I have Trump-hating friends who support Israel and would have heartily endorsed the bombing of Iran’s nuclear facilities—but it’s Trump, so they’re keeping their mouths shut or looking for any excuse to criticize the man.
For those who are convinced Trump is the devil incarnate, the mere thought he might do something good makes them squirm. This is a problem especially for Democrats, who must transcend their Trump-hatred and try to learn why so much of the working class, including Blacks and Hispanics, have moved towards Trump. They’re not all bigots; they’re not all stupid; they’re not all racists.
Similarly, much of the mainstream media still loathes him. You can feel it in how they cover him. They can barely hide their disdain, which only undermines their credibility. “One thing you have to acknowledge about Trump is that he understands the press so much better than the press understands him,” Tina Brown writes.
What the press and so many Trump haters have trouble understanding is that even a blowhard showman with a huge ego can tap into genuine grievances.
What the press and so many Trump haters have trouble understanding is that even a blowhard showman with a huge ego can tap into genuine grievances. Indeed that may even explain some of Trump’s success– he’s a veteran entertainer who’s trained at giving people what they want so they’ll keep tuning in.
People think he’s an outsider. He’s not. He’s an oddball politician who can oversell with the best of them, but unlike other presidents, he got his training not in Congress or state offices but in a high-pressure television studio that tolerates everything except bad ratings.
