The Trump Phenomenon
Trump has achieved something few political figures in modern American history have managed to do: he has taken near-total command of the nation’s pop culture.
For much of American history, the relationship between politics and popular culture generally flowed in one direction. Pop culture was downstream from politics. Political movements, presidents, social institutions, and the prevailing cultural establishment helped define the tone and boundaries of popular entertainment, journalism, television, music, and public discourse.
But that relationship began to change dramatically in the 1970s.
Beginning around the era of Jimmy Carter and accelerating through the decades that followed, the traditional political hierarchy began to weaken. Popular culture increasingly stopped merely reflecting politics and began shaping politics. Television, music, Hollywood, celebrity, advertising, and eventually the internet and social media became powerful forces in determining what Americans talked about, what they valued, what they feared, and even how they understood political reality.
By the time of Barack Obama, that transformation was unmistakable.
Obama did not simply participate in popular culture; he understood it and used it extraordinarily well. His presidency demonstrated how completely politics and pop culture had become intertwined. The president was no longer merely a political figure who appeared on television. The presidency itself had become part of the culture.
And then came Donald Trump.
Trump did not simply enter this new political-cultural environment.
He seized it.
Trump understood something that many traditional politicians either failed to recognize or refused to accept: in modern America, controlling the cultural conversation can be more powerful than controlling the political conversation.
His political identity was inseparable from his celebrity identity. His name, his personality, his conflicts, his insults, his victories, his defeats, his scandals, his rallies, his social-media posts, and even his enemies became part of one enormous cultural narrative.
Trump essentially transformed himself from a politician into a cultural phenomenon that happened to occupy the presidency.
He didn't have to announce, "I am pop culture."
He demonstrated it.
Every controversy became content. Every attack became publicity. Every rally became entertainment. Every opponent became a character. Every media confrontation became another episode in the continuing Trump story.
And perhaps most importantly, Trump understood that attention itself is power.
His opponents could condemn him. The media could attack him. Celebrities could ridicule him. Political institutions could investigate him. Social-media platforms could restrict him. None of it necessarily diminished his cultural presence.
In many cases, it amplified it.
Trump became the subject of the conversation whether his supporters or his opponents wanted him there or not.
That is the real Trump phenomenon.
It is not simply that Trump won elections. It is not simply that he created a powerful political movement. And it is not simply that he divided public opinion.
It is that he fundamentally altered the relationship between politics and American popular culture.
For decades, politicians tried to influence the culture.
Trump figured out how to become the culture.
And once that happened, politics was no longer simply something Americans watched.
https://presumptivephilospher.blogspot.com/2022/09/the-inversion-of-politics-to.html
https://presumptivephilospher.blogspot.com/2016/12/trump-machiavellis-prince-how-to-make.html
Politics became the show.
