It was hard to ignore CNN’s attempts to publicize the most recent Republican debate. The cable news channel released an ad nearly a month before the event featuring dramatic music, flashing graphics, and theatrical images of the candidates — a promo more suitable for announcing characters in an upcoming Marvel feature or competitors in a boxing match. When the long-awaited presidential hopefuls squared-off in Las Vegas, the star of the show remained, unsurprisingly, Donald Trump. Behind the center-stage podium reserved for the highest-polling candidate, Trump received considerable air time even when the question was not directed at him. This was due to CNN’s split-screen feature that captured the frontrunner’s inability to maintain a poker face while his competitors spoke. This comedic value came at Jeb Bush’s expense; Trump’s grimacing and poorly suppressed yawns distracted viewers from Bush’s more serious discussion of foreign policy.
The Republican primary debates are hardly Trump’s only foray into American media. In the past, however, he did not take center stage, but was merely a guest-star. Pre-presidential on-screen Trump served as a caricature of the brusque, cut-throat American businessman. He was known less for how he actually made his fortune, and more for his unmistakable physical characteristics — toupee-like blonde hair, gravelly Queens accent — and trademarked catchphrases, such as “You’ve been Trumped.” He was as much a fixture of New York’s social landscape as Trump Tower was of the skyline. Although Trump’s stage has drastically changed, his attention-grabbing demeanor public has largely remained the same and served a key purpose in the presidential election.
Television and film in the 1990s and early 2000s exemplified Trump’s cultural omnipotence. In Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992), nine-year-old Kevin McCallister, played by Macaulay Culkin, asks Trump for directions in the lobby of the Plaza Hotel, which Trump had recently purchased. Although the hotel mogul is on screen for fewer than ten seconds, his appearance helps lend credibility to the fictional plotline. He also appeared in a 1999 episode of Sex and the City called “The Man, The Myth, The Viagra.” The title refers to an older man that one of the main characters, Samantha, is dating, but it could also easily signify the man’s business colleague, played by the then- fifty-three-year-old Donald Trump. He also spiced up sitcoms, playing himself as a business investor on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air in 1994 and Days of Our Lives in 2005. As Trump has held center stage in every GOP debate, it can be easy to forget that in past TV appearances, Trump was merely a guest-star. He popped into the scenes so briefly that, in The Fresh Prince, one of the characters faints upon first spotting him and misses “The Donald’s” act completely.
In recent months, Trump has become more than a passing television cameo. His reality show ran for fourteen seasons on NBC — first as The Apprentice, and then The Celebrity Apprentice — until the network fired Trump as the host in 2015 due to his inflammatory comments about Mexican immigrants, although he insists that he cut ties with NBC to focus on the presidential election. While this stance may have appeared as a thin cover-up at the time, Trump’s unwavering position among the GOP frontrunners makes many previously skeptical, now grimly nervous voters wonder: “Is Trump the Politician here to stay?” After months of the spectacle, however, the real question is whether the kind of public appeal that sustained The Apprentice can translate into enough votes to win the election.
The answer, a relieving one for the sixty percent of voters who view Trump unfavorably, is probably no. Trump has proven his ability to capture the attention of reality TV fans and dissatisfied conservatives across the country. Nevertheless, the purpose of Trump’s appearance on the political stage this past year is the same as it was in all of his various guest appearances: to capture viewers’ attention. His role on Home Alone 2 was part of the director’s effort to win the sequel as much popularity as its highly successful precursor. Now, he’s enlivening an election season when less than half of all Americans follow what is happening in public affairs “most of the time.” CNN allows Trump to share a split-screen with Jeb Bush because it is likely that the latter cannot command a TV audience’s attention on his own, with his unrecognizable voice, unremarkable glasses, and unappealing pallor.
Candidate Trump relies on the same attention-grabbing symbols as Cameo Trump: a red “Make America Great Again” baseball cap covers his blonde hair, “You’re Deported” replaces “You’re Fired”— a phrase he has barked at hundreds of contestants on The Apprentice. Many of his supporters see Trump as a kind of Jay Gatsby, a tycoon whose outward proof of wealth gives him a sense of credibility so strong that those drawn into his circle become unconcerned about the origin of his fortunes. In this way, Trump has hidden his political inexperience behind the mask of “The Donald.”
However, a successful presidential campaign necessitates that candidates demonstrate their policy expertise. The responsibilities of the Commander-in-Chief require an emotional and intellectual dexterity that endures longer than a movie scene or a twelve-week-long television season, an ability to cultivate a legacy beyond catch-phrases and sloganed hats. Even in a field where Trump, Ben Carson, and Carly Fiorina have highlighted their “outsider” status, as the primaries draw nearer, political inexperience is scrutinized. Carson fell from first to fourth place in the wake of the Paris terrorist attacks as voters questioned his lack of foreign policy experience and recent outlandish claims, such as that the Pyramids of Giza were built to store grain. And it’s likely that Trump, too, will continue to fall as his inexperience surfaces even more.
Eventually, the laugh-producing guest star exits, the episode ends, or the TV audience becomes bored. They lose interest in a reality show that does not reflect their own lives and change the channel to something relatable, something established. Their focus turns to more mainstream candidates such as Marco Rubio or Ted Cruz — who now trails Trump by just four percentage points in the Quinnipiac Poll. If Cruz’s trajectory continues as the first primaries and caucuses begin in February, Trump’s candidacy will become just a flashy advertisement for the real presidential campaign.
Photo: Sam Chua