Donald Trump Is Not a Real Person

Someone has put up a video compilation of Donald Trump cameos from various movies and TV shows on YouTube. Probably in response to the CBC cutting him out of their version of Home Alone 2.

Watching them makes it obvious that Trump is a good actor.

Granted, he always plays the same part.

So did Jimmy Stewart.

But he says his lines naturally. Usually, when a non-actor is featured on TV or in film, the delivery is wooden.

Some will no doubt claim this means he is a good liar.

But I think good acting is very different from lying. A liar must say something that is, for them, highly emotionally charged, without revealing emotion. An actor must say something that is, for them, of no emotional significance, as though they feel some emotion.

It is actually an opposite talent.

It is this latter talent Trump displays.

Seeing it in his cameos, I can now see it everywhere else. Trump has deliberately crafted a role, a public persona, that he plays. Notice that he always wears the same blue suit and red tie. It is a costume. Why does he comb his hair in that odd way? Why does he dye his face orange? It is a trademark; it is establishing a distinctive character. Like Colonel Sanders, or Santa Claus. 

A great actor is able to feign emotion as needed, while actually being careful and calculating. This gives Trump a huge advantage.

His trademark insults for opponents, for example, are carefully thought out and tested beforehand: “Pocahontas,” “Sleepy Joe,” “Little Marco,” and so on. They look like expressions of distain; they are actually strategic marketing moves. And often show considerable creative imagination; the imagination of a true artist. Pete Buttigieg looks like Alfred E. Neuman? Once he’s said it, you can’t stop seeing it. Reputedly, he has advised White House staff to treat each new week as a new episode in a reality show. He makes sure there is some little drama there to keep the public interested.

He uses this acting ability to provoke his opponents into doing what he wants. This is his negotiating talent. This is his art of the deal. This is how he is always playing “4-D chess.”

Hence the now-notorious “Trump Derangement Syndrome.” By pretending emotions himself, he is able to drive opponents to do crazy things in a fit of real emotion. Like the drive for impeachment in the House, which can only make them look foolish and boost his re-election chances.

We are seeing it currently with Iran. By talking and acting extravagantly, Trump seems to have provoked the Iranians into a suicidal path. They now have no good choices.

We see it again and again.

It is not that complicated. It is amazing how so few are picking up on it. That shows what a fine actor Trump it.

Great acting talent, great artistic talent, may be a key to effective leadership. Who else do you immediately think of?

Ronald Reagan. Same talent; he created an amiable, unthreatening persona, that disarmed opponents.

John Paul II was also a skilled actor in his youth.

Benjamin Disraeli was a writer, not an actor, but he had the same talent. He created a public character for himself to inhabit, with trademark elements.

Winston Churchill—a writer. Again with a distinctive crafted public persona.

Douglas MacArthur, George Patton.

I see a pattern.