Media Hype of Donald Trump

The staged not-president

Real estate tycoon, multi-millionaire, reality TV star and now president? Donald Trump’s campaign was often like a satirical reality, but with his conservative provocations he touched the raw nerve of many Americans. Well, for the highest function in the U.S., that is not enough.

After all this, not! This Monday, Donald Trump explained after a weeklong confusion, that he won’t run in the presidential election of the U.S. This decision wasn’t easy for him, he mentioned. But as a passionate businessman, he just wasn’t ready to leave the world of economics behind and become a politician.

Beforehand, American media, even the reliable ones, reported nearly every day about Trump and his alleged political agenda. This seems shrill. It gets even more shrill now, because the big, colored bubble burst.

One, who wondered correctly from the beginning, is the TV producer R.J. Cutler. In his career he produced reality TV shows set in schools or hospitals or with angry dog owners. This multiple Emmy winner knows what people are ready to do for 15 minutes on the TV screen. But as he turned on the TV last week, not even he could trust his own eyes. On all channels he saw Donald J. Trump, the real estate tycoon, the casino owner and host of the show “The Apprentice,” where unemployed contestants apply for a job in Trump’s company-conglomerate.

Trump always has been more a businessman-performer than a businessman, who likes to put the letters T-R-U-M-P on glass skyscrapers. But now he was standing in front of cameras from CNN, NBC and CBS and said, “I would be the best president America has ever seen, and, I will say this, the greatest president in history.” R.J. Cutler watched this and asked himself, “Is he serious?”

In 1992, Cutler produced the documentary “War Room” about the election campaign of Bill Clinton, who first recognized that he could speak directly to the people through TV. In 2004, Cutler invented the reality TV show “American Candidate,” in which they looked for political newcomers.

Trump more votes in polls than established politicians

What was then halfway satire and halfway science fiction now seemed to become reality. The star of a casting show transformed into a candidate for the highest office of the U.S. Trump had at the end of April higher poll numbers from conservative voters than established politicians like Mitt Romney or Newt Gingrich. According to the notable Pew Research Center, 26 percent of Americans saw in Trump the most potential of all candidates. How did this happen?

In March, Trump toured through TV studios to promote the new season of this show “Apprentice.” In interviews he spoke about the mistakes of the Obama administration and which of the politicians he would fire. His thesis: Who ever is successful in managing a company is the right one for the White House.

Politics on the level of Zlatko

Trump, nearly 60, three marriages, several bankruptcies, never attracted attention as a stalwart conservative. Now he followed a new script, ranted about the U.N., same sex marriage and doubted in public that Barack Obama was born in the U.S. “China is raping this country,” Trump said. He thinks he is the right messenger to tell OPEC to cut oil prices. With him the complex world of the 21th century became simple and flat.

Trump traveled from state to state, stepped beckoningly out of his own helicopter and delivered speeches at conservative think tanks and women’s organizations. He did what a candidate had to do. Only the questions of whether he is serious about all this wasn’t answered until this Monday.

This man followed the guidebook for reality TV stars: Attract attention — at any price. He compared same sex marriage with golf: “A lot of people … are switching to this really long putter, very unattractive. … And I hate it. I am a traditionalist.”

This might be politics on the level of Zlatko Trpkovski, the star of the first season of the German “Big Brother.” But it was satirical reality with a real political outcome. Donald Trump made such a fuss that Barack Obama felt obliged to publish his birth certificate.

Shortly thereafter, Trump stepped out of his helicopter, waving in front of cameras and said, “Today I’m very proud of myself, because I’ve accomplished something that no one else has been able to accomplish” So reality TV shows and politics have more in common than one would expect.

In politics — like in reality shows — everyone gets a chance

The mix of candidates in shows like “American Idol” or “The Apprentice” is mostly a designed microcosm of society, which is created by casting agents according to demographical criteria: one academic, one blue-collar worker, one African American, one homosexual. This represents modern America in a better way than the U.S. Congress, where you can barely find members of ethnic minorities.

The structure of shows where candidates are kicked out by the audience, according to culture critic Mark Greif from the magazine n+1, “echoed, with static, the old idea of a republic of political equals, who despite unequal skills and endowments one by one would recuse themselves from activity to leave a single best representative behind to speak in public for their interests.”

The next TV stars are waiting

Greif understands reality TV shows as political allegories, but they “got confused with the economic or Darwinian model of competition […]” In politics as on TV sets, the red blinking recording light of the camera determines life.

Everything happens in front of the camera. You have to forget and use it at the same time. The story about Donald Trump demonstrates that reality shows can prepare you for the world of politics. First lesson: In an economy of attention you get capital with screen presence.

Donald Trump pulled himself from the race. But the conservative Americans have even more TV stars for candidates. Tea party icon Sarah Palin and Mike Huckabee, ex-preacher and ex-governor of Arkansas, got their own shows — and have a good presence in polls.

But is a fixed time slot more precious than political office? The comments, which showed Trump as the favorite among Republicans, gave a biased image of reality. Because, as The New York Times blogger Jim Rutenberg explains, “survey results at this point in a campaign cycle … tend to reflect how well known the candidates are, and little else.”

U.S. news media do not play a notable role in the real realty show of Donald Trump. “And for the burgeoning industry of political handicappers and pundits eager to see primary season begin in earnest, these early polls provide fodder for as much horse race talk as could have ever been heard at your local OTB,” Rutenberg wrote.

If one had asked U.S. editorial departments before Monday, why Trump gets so much attention, the answer was that he is popular. The reference to the visibility of a figure, which was produced by his interviews, legitimized the ongoing reporting that avoided the necessary checking of motives and theories.

Reality TV show careers are short

The current viewing rate of Trump’s show “The Apprentice” is 20 percent higher in comparison to last year. There are on average more than 8 million people every week watching his show. TV producer Cutler says, “His career is proof of the power of television and of the wisdom of the American voters.”*

Recently there have been signs that reality TV specialist Trump might have a rude awakening from reality. His poll ratings were falling. Advertising partners and the political establishment distanced themselves. Trump, it seems, remembered just in the right moment the first law of the genre: A career as a casting show winner is turbulent — and short.

*Translator’s Note: This quote, though accurately translated, could not be verified.