Donald J. Trump, Cosplayer
[NB: check the byline, thanks. /~Rayne]
I think Marcy and I both have takes on Trump’s fast food stunt. Mine comes from an awareness of fan studies, which is a subset of communications and cultural studies.
This old dude is cosplaying.
Donald J. Trump wearing an apron while dispensing french fries at a McDonald’s fast food restaurant in Pennsylvania as part of a campaign stunt on Sunday, October 20, 2024. Photo by Doug Mills/AP.
What’s cosplay, you may ask if you’re not familiar with popular culture. From Wiktionary:
cosplay
Noun
cosplay (countable and uncountable, plural cosplays)(uncountable) The art or practice of costuming oneself as a (usually fictional) character.
(countable) A skit or instance of this art or practice.Coordinate terms
dress-upVerb
cosplay (third-person singular simple present cosplays, present participle cosplaying, simple past and past participle cosplayed)(intransitive) To costume oneself as a character.
She cosplayed at the manga convention.
(transitive) To costume oneself as (a character).
She cosplayed Sailor Moon at the manga convention.
(figurative, often derogatory, transitive) To adopt the behavior and mannerisms of another.
It’s playing in costume, dress-up like we might have done as children, or at costume parties.
Cosplay originated roughly a hundred years ago but it didn’t enter mainstream popular culture until the 1980s. At first it was tied more closely to specific events; by the 1980s it became more widely practiced as an expression of fandom participation. Its popularity has risen in sync with that of comic book conventions, which have in turn expanded to encompass much of popular culture from comics to movies to premium cable series.
Cosplaying offers an escape from one’s real life as well as a sense of belonging to a fandom community.
For some folks cosplay is a kink as well. I’m not going to kink shame – your kink is not my kink and that’s okay – but let’s acknowledge for some participants there’s a sexual element to this expression of fandom.
(Side note: Based on Stormy Daniels’ statements about her intimate episode with Trump during which she spanked him with a magazine, it’s possible Trump has a humiliation kink. Cosplaying at McDonald’s might serve his need to be shamed by what he perceives as beneath him.)
Trump is dressing up as a character. He is not actually working in fast food. A shut-down McDonald’s and a Fox News TV crew isn’t real but a stage and a production team for campaign propaganda.
This is not the first time we’ve seen Trump cosplaying, either.
The question before voters is this: when is Trump NOT cosplaying?
~ ~ ~
Let’s look at other roles Trump may have cosplayed in the past.
Exhibit A: Trump cosplayed as a successful investor of real estate and casinos.
Trump in Trump business office c. 1970s. Photo: Getty Images
Perhaps this is why his real estate ventures have been of questionable success. He was only playing at this, not actually being a rational, competent real estate investor but a man costumed as one.
Cosplaying a business tycoon could explain why Trump racked up multiple bankruptcies and failed businesses from Trump-branded steaks to Trump University.
(It’d also explain why the office in this photo looks unfit for business — like a simulacra of an office.)
Exhibit B: Trump cosplayed as a rich and successful CEO.
Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue bearing a promotional banner for NBC’s The Apprentice reality TV series with a photo of Donald Trump and the tagline words, “You’re Fired.” Photo: Bernd Auers via Fortune.
The Apprentice was a scripted program in which Trump was characterized as the leader of a successful organization. This script was based on the previous cosplay effort; in other words, a canon of Donald J. Trump had already been established in a way that The Apprentice could simply extend this commercial franchise.
Buying into this scripted costume play could explain why Trump hasn’t released tax returns – who’d expect a man who only appears to be a businessman on TV to do anything more than follow the script?
Apparently Mark Burnett should have written a couple episodes dealing with business taxes.
Exhibit C: Trump cosplays as a golfer.
Via Newsweek: Donald Trump at Trump National Golf Club on August 10, 2023, in Bedminster, New Jersey. The former president bragged recently about winning two golf tournaments. Photo: Mike Stobe/Getty Images
Real golfers don’t need to cheat every round, to the point one is a legendary cheater. Trump just pretends to be a golfer. His cheating assures his golf score card looks like a real golfer’s score.
Exhibit D: Trump cosplays as a family man with family values.
Screen capture: tweet containing two photos of Trump with a young Ivanka sitting on his lap. Source: Snopes
This is so very obvious, from his chronic infidelities to his abusive behavior toward his first wife and sons, to his revolting attitude and behavior toward his daughter.
Exhibit E: Trump cosplayed as president.
Trump in White House Oval Office behind Resolution Desk while giving an address. Photo: Carlos Berria/AP
When did the extended commercial franchise end? Do we really know?
The person who sat in the Oval Office for four years wasn’t competent as president. He performed the role of president but a substantial number of his actions were not deeply thought out and instead reflexive. Perhaps many of his actions were scripted by others; some recent White House staff memoirs suggest others were definitely pulling the strings on this man who has no moral compass and a pathological need for approval.
Did he cosplay a presidential candidate as well in 2015-2016, failing to respond as one might expect a legitimate candidate because he only appeared to be a candidate?
Is he cosplaying a presidential candidate now because he has more incentive to play the role of his life, for his life?
Does that include cosplaying a fast food worker doing the kind of labor he’d never have been caught dead doing in reality?
~ ~ ~
Marcy and I have both mentioned kayfabe before with regard to Trump – me with regard to his handling of COVID, and Marcy with regard to the performative drama in which members of the media have participated wittingly or unwittingly with regard to Trump’s current campaign.
Kayfabe is performance; when effective and sustained, audiences and sometimes performers themselves can be sucked into believing performance is real and not a synthetic creation miming an alternative reality.
Cosplay is not kayfabe but dress-up. One doesn’t become a dog by wearing a fur suit.
It’s possible for kayfabe and cosplay to overlap, though.
Trump donning an apron in a closed-to-the-public McDonald’s and handing out fries is cosplay. In no way does he gain any further true understanding of what real fast food workers’ lives are like.
Taking off the apron ends Trump’s cosplay; in reality, taking off the apron doesn’t end challenges for minimum-wage workers. They don’t shed rent, health care, and transportation costs they can’t afford on part-time minimum wages. They don’t lose the challenges of scheduling child and elder care, education, household needs when they walk out the restaurant’s door.
Trump donning a suit and tie, then touting economic policy he doesn’t fully understand is both cosplay and kayfabe. Like a wrestler we never see without their trademark hair cut and attire, we don’t see Trump outside his blue suit and red tie or his white polo shirt and khaki golf pants. These are the element of both his cosplay as business person and president and golfer. They are signs of his engagement in kayfabe – when he’s wearing them, he’s on.
But you never see him outside these costumes, you might note.
That’s because there’s nothing there behind the suit and tie, behind the de rigueur golf apparel, and now behind the fast food apron.
Trump is an empty husk of a man. His narcissism underlies his fear others will discover this, that he is nothing but a propped-up costume used like a puppet by his sponsors whether Putin or billionaire oligarchic fascists.
He’s compelled to cosplay because he dare not do otherwise. Whatever costume he was wearing would crumple to the floor as he decompensated.
~ ~ ~
It is not in this nation’s best interests to elect a cosplayer-in-chief.
We have real problems requiring real solutions from people who aren’t playing or performing to the darkest interests. We need leaders who think and care deeply about the needs of this nation and are willing to do the real work necessary to serve.
It is and has been a national security problem to allow a narcissist who placates his screamingly hollow ego with praise from hostile foreign leaders and fascist oligarchs for his performative behavior in costume.
Imagine what will happen if he is elected again and is told by his sponsors on Day One, “Okay, Mr. Trump, give us your best impression of Hitler. We know you can do a great job.” He’s already warned us he’s interested in becoming an autocrat out of the gate.
This same approach may already have been used to encourage him to cosplay at McDonald’s: “Sir, we know you can be a better fast food worker than Harris. We know you can do a great job and it’ll help your campaign.” Voila, the hollow man has donned the apron to mimic a minimum wage worker for a photo op.
Imagine what a weak man with a humiliation kink, a desperate hunger for approval, and a love of cosplay could do if an authority figure demands specific kayfabe while in costume.
I hope some day we get a better handle on TFG’s multiple pathologies. Some of his performance in costume is based on a horrible specimen of Dunning-Krueger effect, ex. “If Harris can do it, how hard can it be?”
Except that he’s never actually doing it. He’s just waving his arms while flapping his gums on camera.
The whole reason for this McDonald’s cosplay is because VP Harris states that she worked at McDonald’s between her freshman and sophomore summer of college.
Records don’t exist from 40 yeas ago for short term help.
Therefore, this stunt by Trump was a jab at VP Harris: Close a NcDonalds restaurant, and have pretend customers be served by Trump.
Yeah, yeah, that’s the backstory about why.
But this is still cosplay – he is in a costume, he is NOT working, he has zero respect for minimum wage workers. It all looks like playacting to him.
Surprised no one’s asked him how his bone spurs felt while he was on his feet “working.”
The backstory is that he is cosplaying as a campaign manager as well.
How much time and effort went into staging this? Obsessing over some insignificant detail no one gives a fuck about, like whether or not VP Harris might have worked at a McDonalds decades ago, has Trump fingerprints all over it. The idea that this was a campaign-worthy effort is laughable.
Just like he cosplays as a lawyer when he gets his REAL lawyers to do his insane bidding. But do proceed, Mr. “president”!
Reply to Bugboy321
October 22, 2024 at 6:07 am
I don’t think he thought this up. This is the kind of stuff old white GOP campaign folks whip up when everything they’ve done for decades doesn’t work any longer, and they’ve got a massive POS to try and push.
How are they going to re-take the headlines in media when their candidate keeps doing stupid shit like talking about Arnold Palmer’s dick? What would this lard ass cosplayer be willing to do? Tell him he’s losing to a fast food worker, find a sympathetic McD’s franchisee willing to shut down for part of the day as a donation-in-kind, slap an apron on him and fluff his ego along the way.
“Gee, sir, you look so good, like you’ve been doing this forever. You’d have the best McDonald’s, sales would be huge!” and stick him in front of cameras. Just don’t tell him Ronald McDonald looked better.
Adder: you know the really stupid part about this? Trump org owns restaurants attached to the resorts where there are surely minimum wage workers slinging shitty over-cooked burgers.
Why didn’t he cosplay in his own restaurants, apart from the fact the McD’s was in a swing state?
Because that would not be cosplay. He couldn’t kayfabe in a Trump restaurant, it would collapse his existing kayfabe as golf resort tycoon.
What I first noticed was affect, he COULD NOT get real.
I think first notice was, as a young man he tried acting tough. But he wasn’t, so he held his arms out as if in fighting position, but it wasn’t. So I kinda’ saw that he tried to be a toughguy in Queens and his private school, but not-so-much in Brooklyn (right next door) or the Bronx.
Next it was playing at ladies man. He looked stupid. His dancing, his whole sucky expressions didn’t do it. My wife noticed, about 50 years ago, that he was “good looking, but repulsive”.
I agree that he is playing in every role. It’s a demented Being There.
he mentioned somewhere that it wasn’t on her resume’. nobody lists jobs like that, especially from decades ago. unless you’re looking in that career field or it’s all you have, don’t list it.
Now he can put it on his resume for a job as a greeter at Walmart. Great piece of writing Rayne.
LOL Did Trump happen to include on his own resumé that he was a landlord who was sued for violating the Fair Housing Act in 1973-1974?
Oh, ri-ight, I’m sure he dropped that off his resumé because it happened decades ago.
In my career as a scientist, I was involved in hiring scientists and technicians. People who put information about their employment at such places were doing themselves a disfavor; it dilutes and distracts from the information that is important. And someone who has to wade though dozens of resumes doesn’t want to spend time on unimportant information.
Not so sure there aren’t records. McDonald’s may not have them but the IRS (the tax filing for 1983) and Social Security does. I still see my dishwasher wages from 1979 in my Social Security notice every year.
Bravo Rayne, this is one of your very best pieces; it might even be better than my other favorite, golf resort as money laundering service.
Agree — this piece is great. Its a useful lens for thinking about who Trump is and why he behaves the way he does.
Virginia Heffernan of Slate did an interview with Mary Trump four years ago, in which Mary talked about the extended Trump family. Early on, there was this exchange:
Later on, Mary was asked “Is he [Trump] happy?”. Here’s what Mary had to say:
From my perch, Trump views happiness as the product of power. If you don’t have power, you can’t be happy — and Trump in his insecurity can *always* find someone with more power. Maybe it’s more money, or bigger weapons, or immunity from prosecution, or something else. And those he views as having power — Putin, billionaire oligarchs, fascists, etc. — can wrap him around their fingers, as he lusts for what they have and he doesn’t.
“myths that have been created about him and that he’s perpetuated and believes about himself” = the canonical Trump.
The ugly element of that canon has been reinforced and extended by fanon — augmented material developed by “fans” (his audience, his base, his campaign team, his handlers, his sponsors/owners) who have expectations of him beyond what he constructed to survive his father’s autocratic demands.
Now he is assimilating that fanon as part of his canon. It’s deeply toxic.
If only we had a handle on shutting down that feedback loop. Harris and Walz have been close to doing so by resetting the frame around Trump and the GOP: they’re weird, they’re laughable. No one is a fanatic for the inhumane weird.
Bandy Lee calls it “Trump Contagion” — both she and Mary Trump stated that Kamala landed a couple of Narcissistic blows during the debate (hence, no more debates).
Interestingly, Bandy Lee has recently called out both Mary Trump and George Conway for misrepresenting and/or usurping mental health professionals in media, as in “where are they and why aren’t they speaking out in public?”. She was dealt a blow by the American Psychiatric Association, who publicly dissed her after her book came out in 2017 and then effectively prevented her from appearing on mainstream media the last few years. So the chip on her shoulder seems to have valid precursors. She has been relegated to podcasts and non-traditional media like Meidas Touch lately, but still fighting hard. (I got this info from a recent substack of hers)…
The only aspect of his life that he can’t kayfabe is his criminal trials. He is just a defendant, period, and one who attempts at all times to avoid having to answer to the charges brought against him. Where he has been forced to so answer, in NY, he hasn’t been able to fabricate any non-criminal version of himself that a jury could buy. He’s naked in court, which is why he is always desperate to avoid trials getting underway.
Harris should consider letting that be part of her closing argument the next two weeks:
“If a defendant is innocent, he or she should welcome the opportunity to prove it, if only ‘within the shadow of a doubt’ in criminal cases.”
But he can’t cosplay innocence — it can’t be costumed, it has to be actual. And in that respect, it’s just not in his wheelhouse. That’s why his only defense is to abort his trials.
It explains his expressions of disbelief: Can you believe they’re doing this to me?
He was just cosplaying a candidate, just kayfabe-ing a business tycoon. He’s never gotten in serious trouble doing kayfabe, always been bailed out, always found an end to the season and series.
This time there’s no out through cosplay and kayfabe.
“Can you believe they’re doing this to me?”
I hope the McD didn’t stiff him and paid him for his hard work, the PA minimum wage, $7.25, https://www.pa.gov/en/agencies/dli/resources/compliance-laws-and-regulations/labor-management-relations/pennsylvania-s-minimum-wage-act.html
I wish he had to figure out how to rent a one-bedroom apartment earning $7.25/hour working only 20-36 hours a week and on an irregular schedule.
@xyxyxyxy at October 22, 2024 at 2:19 am:
This hourly minimum wage would make for Trump’s 15-minute stunt — let’s be generous — only 2 bucks. Trump himself has admitted that time period, as I read elsewhere (sorry, didn’t keep the link).
Cosplay an incarcerated inmate would work.
Off-topic: the Central Park Five have sued Trump for defaming them during the recent presidential debate:
May they each be financially secure, and then some, for the rest of their lives.
Amen.
The phrase “reckless disregard for the truth” fits Trump to a T. He seems to have learned nothing from his adventures defaming E. Jean Carroll.
Convict-1 will push the envelope as far as he can, probably knowing that even if (more like when, given all of the very public statements claiming guilt for the Ex-5) he loses in the defamation suit, he’ll just not pay it and let the plaintiff seize his undoubtedly highly leveraged properties in the US.
IANAL, so I do not know how far the reach goes for asset seizure outside of the US.
Good luck with that. He is also cosplaying a billionaire.
Attachments for willful or malicious injuries are not dischargeable in bankruptcies. I don’t think a NYC court would find otherwise with Trump.
I don’t which is worse: him cosplaying as a Christian or his cultists cosplaying that they believe he’s a Christian.
That’s a good example — he’s not ever been an observant Christian as an adult, but he’s willing to play one for rewards from Christian fundies and evangelicals.
In turn they make more demands on him as part of fanon — they expect fan service in the form of punishment meted to those who aren’t Christian fundies/evangelicals.
It’s really easy for him to meet their expectations when there’s an overlap with his personal beliefs, like racism and misogyny.
he has many of them convinced. at a rally just S of me today….
“I feel like they like him a lot because of his character and a lot of his boldness and willingness to go out and share his opinion regardless of what everyone thinks,” Israel Karuku said. “I think that’s why a lot of Gen Z would be leaning more towards Trump.
https://www.wcnc.com/article/news/local/trump-concord-charlotte-north-carolina-faith-event/275-7c73ebc4-6af9-46d4-99ac-2453c982cf52
Well that says a lot about civics education in this country.
Oh yes, he absolutely has some of them convinced he’s a Christian and is a martyr sent by God.
Others know he’s a fake but they love how it “triggers the left.” A big chunk of the MAGA cult are like the losers in high school who sided with the bully because he made them feel powerful.
Many of them say they are well aware he is “not a good man,” but their argument is that the end times are heralded not by the arousal of the good in people but by a sharp decline into evil, which then becomes the trigger for the final coming of the messiah. The problem is, that few of them seem to have grappled seriously with just how un-good he is (double-plus-un-good, as one might say). But that particular belief puts them beyond persuasion in any reasonable sense.
We are at a perilous point when someone aims to cosplay a/the Messiah, and/or the
dictator-with-nuclear codes.
I would dare say that his Evangelical Base is participating in a Kayfab fantasy in which they see themselves as Christians.
They see themselves as the virtuous faithful who will be raptured (which is a modern American idea, not something in the bible they never read). The support Israel because they need it for their imaginary Second Coming, after which all the Jews must convert or die. And the rest of us? We get to die horribly and go to the also-unbiblical hell.
Even trying to understand the whims of the moment for these types is a waste of time. I’ve been married to a sometimes evangelical (sometimes stripper, good mother, abuser, etc.). Their ability to change what they believe in at the drop of a Word is amazing. Sorry for the personal note, but they do exist and are sometimes parts of our lives.
One of my earliest peeks into crazy was driving on the main drag in Lancaster, PA past theaters offering Jesus shows onstage, riding behind a car whose licence plate read:
” I Follow Trump ”
There’s their religion.
What’s that famous quote from Mary McCarthy, about Lillian Hellman?
“Everything she writes is a lie, including ‘and and ‘the'”…
Seems appropriate for Trump…
Every time his lips move, he’s lying… every time…
No ifs, and, or buts… every time…
He is already cosplaying as a fascist dictator and enjoying it. Trump is not trying to mimic Hitler and the Nazi party, he likely doesn’t read enough to be fluent in such parallels, but he loves the reaction he gets when he is nasty, openly vindictive, and racist.
Two conversations today were meaningful to me. The first with a GenZ co-worker who wants to vote third party because of Gaza and fracking. They were persuaded that Kamala is not the lesser of two evils. They are scared of what Trump’s administration will do to the LGBTQ community. One vote plus friends.
If you’re scared of Trump, not voting for Kamala Harris is a good way to make Trump the 47th President.
Indeed. I don’t want my colleagues and friends to vote for Kamala because she’s the lesser of two evils. I hate that false equivalency. She is truly inspiring and will listen to us. She can only shape policy on the Middle East and renewable energy after she becomes President, and she has been VP in an administration that has done more for renewable energy than any previous administration. She will need to do more, especially for Gaza. Fight for it. Advocate for it, but vote for Kamala.
Good luck on your expectations.
They will see themselves as innocent of anything that happens.
The recent Vince McMahon doc (“Mr. McMahon” on Netflix) reminds us that Trump had a brief stint as a character in WWE ca. 2007, and one of the journalists helping narrate does a great job of explaining the kayfabe environment as a natural habitat / incubator for Trump’s particular persona. (I agree with the post, that kayfabe is not synonymous with cosplay. It’s probably a subset.)
Trmp whipsaws us all with his kayfabe by switching, on a moment’s notice, between babyface and heel. It’s part of his tactics of confusion.
Working phone banks at lunch in PA. We reached 2.7 million Dem voters last week. Second conversation with an 83 year old woman desperate to vote with her Republican husband for Kamala. Am I still registered? How do I find out? How do I get to the polls, we’re under doctor’s care? Spent 45 mins talking through options. Daughter, neighbor. She’s going to vote…worth every minute.
Thank you for this service!
The constant harassment of the Democratic party texting me is infuriating. Their lack of tact and their insults are never ending. I am not inclined to respond except negatively, get lost. Leave me alone. It doesn’t stop. Who I’m going to vote for is none of their business.
I promise the first half of this becomes relevant to Trump cosplaying. Over on Reddit earlier today, I saw a post where a person who had made a chainmail tunic to wear to a Ren Faire was venting about a vendor mansplaining to them about how it wasn’t done right for combat. One of the many supportive comments said that Ren Faire wasn’t combat unless you’re in a tournament, so one should wear what one liked. To be historically accurate, one should also wear a gambeson under chainmail, but very few people put up with wearing heavy quilted jackets under the mail outside of battle.
This is relevant because cosplaying allows one to take on some parts of the character one is cosplaying without having to take all the uncomfortable bits. Take on the chain mail but not the gambeson. When Trump cosplays a fry cook, he doesn’t need a hair net or hat. When he cosplays a Christian, he doesn’t need to adopt all of the tedious things that Jesus said Christians should do. And on and on through morals, business, golf, etc.
Bingo.
Trump cosplaying president doesn’t have to employ any ethics or comply with his oath.
Of course now we have to wonder if the Roberts SCOTUS has approved cosplayer-in-chief by writing a permission slip to play and not be held accountable.
What is there to wonder about. The SCOTUS majority opinion made it crystal clear that a President cannot be criminally liable for anything done in the course of their “official” duties. As the next President, Trump will be free to do whatever he pleases. And if he orders a subordinate to commit an act that is a federal crime, he has the pardon power to ensure they are never actually punished for it even if convicted.
Read my comment again: I was discussing permission to cosplay. Cosplaying is NOT the job of the president.
I’m guessing quite a few blue collar MAGAts would drift away from the pitch if asked a simple question: “If your assembly line had an opening for a machine operator, would you recommend a Donald Trump to stand next to you on the line?”
I wouldn’t.
Nicely put, Rayne. Trump is always playing a role, a certain limited type of man whom Daddy Trump would be proud of. The opposite of his older brother Fred, who was a mensch, who takes care of family and friends, notwithstanding who his daddy was, which puts paid to Trump’s claim that it’s all about his genes.
In imitation of his daddy, Donald is a grasper, a liar, a greedy, no holds barred loser who will do or say anything to get the slightest advantage. Who rates himself by how much people who don’t know him applaud. The only role Donald Trump can’t play is himself, because nobody wants to touch that with a ten-foot pole.
Thanks for the exhaustive and exhausting documentation of this shell of a human being.
There is a flip side to the term “cosplay”, which is that it can be used to try to minimize serious criminal behavior.
One blog that has drifted (or more likely steered hard) into the alt-left space
posted this on January 7, 2021:
https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2021/01/maga-cosplayers-seize-capitol-while-cops-flounder.html
and has not looked back in its desire to mock those who have tried to hold the J6ers accountable.
This, if you have the stomach, is their take on the McDonald’s photo-op farce:
https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2024/10/trump-dons-apron-works-drive-thru-fry-station-at-bucks-county-pa-mcdonalds-warming-hearts-and-exploding-heads.html
I don’t know what kind of substances they’re using at Naked Capital but jeebus, it looks like it’s caused brain damage.
Used to enjoy Yves Smith, especially “econned”.
Even used her recommended Hong Kong tailer.
Have’t been back that way in years.
Well the dude doesn’t inspire nuanced distinctions; that’s part of his “charm.”
I saw one photo of TFG getting ready for his show. He’d taken off the suit jacket and was being handed the apron. Good Ghu, he has a lot of padding on that torso.
When you add in the fact that the McDonalds was CLOSED that day, and the ‘customers’ were Trump supporters brought in to act as real ones, he was acting as the leading man of a scene from a movie, with hundreds of extras.
I recall one report (didn’t bookmark it; sorry) which said that he was just handing stuff out the window, so when your car rolled up, you just got handed something, i.e., no actual orders.
I wonder how much extra police cost and inconvenience there was for the people of Bucks County for this weird stunt.
Meidas Touch did a hot take on this, worth watching. Apparently the franchisee (this wasn’t a company store) also has had problems with health inspectors and paying his staff fair wages.
Occasionally, its economic reporting remains valid, especially about the gross financial mismanagement at CalPERS. But Nakedcapitalism is the quintessential horseshoe leftist. It is so far “left,” in its own estimation, that it is radical right, virtually anarchist.
It is very pro-Russia, which makes it laughably anti-Ukraine, and has only disdain for what it derisively calls Russiagate. It is essentially anti-Democratic and -democratic. As an Abbey, it is dedicated to Saints Greenwald, Taibbi, and Mate. Commenters not with the program are quickly hounded off the site, under the pretense of failing to abide by its objectivity requirements. Fuggedaboutit.
She booted me for being “Too aggressive”.
In other words…
…our opinions differed.
(Saved our lengthy email exchages)
That’s funny, given how ferociously Yves polices comments and commenters, under the guise of moderating.
Anarchists often believe being extremist is most powerful. I recommend a book: Dreamers Dynamiters and Demagogues by Max Nomad. It’s a memoir.
“I worked at McDonald’s in college, too, Senator Vance. I knew the difference between pearl diving (cleaning the messy, oily big stuff in the back) and the fry station, what the employee discount was, and what happened to food not eaten. You’re no Kamala Harris or Doug Emhoff, Senator. You’re not even a squeezed-out ketchup packet.”
lolol… “Stop the Sthiel…
Oh my – that’s a good one.
Stealing that…
Nakedcapitalism’s response to the “pecksniffery” about Trump’s staged, “brilliant,” “fun, silly, goofy event” is laid out in seven, got ’em, seven points. After first disingenuously claiming not to like Trump OR Harris, the author lays them out:
1. Trump “earned” the media.
2. “Everything about the message is good.”
3. “Everything about the media is good.”
4. The event “disposes’ of the “talking point” that Donald Trump has cognitive problems.
5. The event “precludes” Kamala Harris from doing anything similar. Trump “sewed up” campaign events at the work place.
6. The event will likely earn Trump “thousands” of votes in Bucks County.
7. It will win for him the “irregular voters” in PA his campaign seeks.
The conclusions are painfully unsupported, but come from a guy who thinks 1) Kamala Harris hasn’t proven she worked at McDonald’s (an election-critical fact!); 2) that Trump “showed respect for workers by entering their world;” and 3) that George W. Bush, as President during his Gulf War, actually pulled a trap by hisself [sic] and landed that navy jet on the Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier, before strutting in his too-tight flight suit under that “Mission Accomplished” banner that just happened to be spread across the carrier’s island. Guffaw. Point 4 is the most outlandish bit of nonsense in the list.
Of course, the author derides his and Trump’s critics for not being savvy enough to appreciate how successful Trump’s shtick is, that he’s a brilliant troll whom only the cognoscenti appreciate. As if that were a characteristic needed in a President.
NC’s self-satisfaction is mesmerizing, especially as it’s one of their standard critiques of this site.
Fox is doubling down on the McDonalds fraud. They just showed one of the “customers” at the drive thru. Trump says to her “Look at all the fake news over there” and she replies “You can’t fake this!”. Then they show her afterwards gushing over how PA is “on fire” for Trump. Neither she nor Fox gave her name, not even her first name.
LOL doubling down means they’re sensitive about this fakery.
Slapping on an apron doesn’t make one a line cook. “But it’s a real apron!”
Cosplayer-in-chief couldn’t even bother to roll up his sleeves let alone wear a cap or a hair net.
$99 per drop of Trump’s fryer oil. Be a part of history! Won’t last long at these prices!
Reply to Matt Foley
October 22, 2024 at 3:56 pm
Oh check this out:
LOL I see P J Evans in replies. Heh.
Honestly, I was a little mystified by this stunt. We have Breitbart talking about the “deepening scandal” of Kamala’s summer job work history from literally 40 years ago— which I guess this fry-slinging jaunt is supposed to contrast or evoke? Only the very most terminally online (and already decided voters) would have any clue/care about this.
I also question the wisdom of having Don pretend to “work” a job because it’s immediately and obviously similar to what was going on with Fred Trump at the end of his struggle with dementia
Working a “job” seems not to fit. Let’s call it an apprenticeship.
And if he wants ideas about future “apprenticeships” to turn into campaign ads, how about emptying bedpans at a faux nursing home (wouldn’t want him anywhere near real nursing home residents!), changing diapers at a faux childcare facility, or shadowing Mike Rowe on any number of his Dirty Jobs?
Maybe it was Don Jr’s idea, he being the Trump who is most terminally online.
1) Paper towels for Puerto Ricans
2) Holding a Bible upside-down in Lafayette Square
3) Desecrating Arlington
4) etc. etc. etc.
Fry cook at McD’s is just the latest in a long line of mystifying, counterproductive stunting. (When someone lost the plot that hard in the old days, the big hook would come out from stage left…)
Not disagreeing with the cosplaying theory, but Trump’s motivation to pretend to work the fry station was simple:
He was jealous Harris was getting too much favorable attention for doing it, making her seem more the “common man,” and his lying saying she didn’t wasn’t gaining enough traction.
Working the fry station himself solves both sides of this in his mind. For the “she really did work there” part of his base, he evens the ledger in a sense. For the “she’s lying” part of his base, he is seen as sticking it to her – trolling.
If there were any other actions she’s received favorable press about that he weren’t too stupid to do or took too much effort, he would have already copied those.
Still one of my favorite SNL/Dave Chappelle routines…
https://youtu.be/–IS0XiNdpk
“America elected an internet troll.”
I think that’s a pretty good take on the “why” of the closed-to-the-public McD’s stunt.
There’s no need to insist on one rationale, when most people have many. These things are often focus-grouped or done by committee, with as many rationales as there are participants. Owning the libs; owning Harris; pretending to work like a normal, minimum wage person, when that is demonstrably not what you’re doing; foreclosing Harris from doing workplace events, falsely portraying her as a liar; letting Trump pretend to be a master of where his main food source comes from. They’re all consistent.
I’m pretty sure this stunt was Trump’s idea. It’s been his MO since he rode his fake gold plated escalator in front of a group of paid actors when he announced his candidacy in 2015. He’s been cancelling a lot of events lately, those would be the ones he didn’t think of in the first place, since he knows more about running for public office than anybody. I would also be surprised they let him work the fryer. Having him be around hot oil that he has to put the basket in and take out? Yeah, right.
Reply to Shadowalker
October 22, 2024 at 4:52 pm
Have you seen a photo where he actually worked the fryer?
Or have you only seen photos of Tiny Hands holding a sleeve of french fries and yapping out the service window?
Neither that McD’s owner nor Trump would let him work a real french fryer. He’d burn the place down. He’d either ignore the buzzer, not knowing it was telling him the fries were done, or he’d plant his tie in the hot oil, then wipe his brow.
I’m also pretty sure the backseat naval aviator in that jet, landing on the Abraham Lincoln, didn’t let GW Bush actually catch a trap. Sure, GW flew jets in the TX National Guard, but it was decades earlier and he’d never landed on a carrier. It’s a perishable skill.
Read a lot about his actor tendencies. Playing a businessman on the Apprentice, playing president of the US. On TV, ratings were the most important feedback. In politics, it’s polls. When all one is doing is acting, and the self image is tied to audience feedback, there are no human values, no human feelings except the scripted ones, and no authentic connections with others.
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The “wisdom” you “question” does not in fact exist.
What I love about the photo of him handing out the fries is that he’s got an absolutely covetous/ravenous stare at the damn things going. Should be captioned:
As soon as he shoots the photo, these are gone!” or “Don’t drool. Don’t drool. Don’t drool.”
Via Mastodon:
The only customers for whom Trump would comp a meal, anywhere, anytime.
And yes, the pee tape would have been on vhs.
LMAO! That photo is PERFECT!
excellent find.
as it came out later, the image is done by ColdWarSteve [formerly on 𝕏itter, now on threads].
Brilliant!
Is that Trump portrait you used a parody of Santa Anna, Maximilian I, or Porfirio Diaz?
I believe we identified the original painting it was copied from when
we discussed the gift made 2016, in 2018.
One day after Donald Trump’s campaign chairman and top brass sat down in Trump Tower with a Russian lawyer promising dirt on Hillary Clinton in June 2016, Trump received a birthday present. It was from Aras Agalarov, the Azerbaijani-Russian oligarch whose son helped arrange the meeting.
It was discussed here
https://www.emptywheel.net/2018/04/28/was-trumps-birthday-present-a-painting-or-stolen-emails/#comment-734916
And the “inspiration”
https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Vasilchikov_3_Nikolay_Vasilyevich.jpg#mw-jump-to-license
Thanks. I see the resemblance to the source portrait of a Russian general, but the Mexican generals seem more apt, notwithstanding Trump’s abject submission to Vlad the Impaler.
No. This is not cosplay. This is an insane person calling someone of color the day before their birthday that they are feces because he knows he is going to lose and is hoping in desperation, to start the decades old, very over race war that never happened. The interesting thing is how history will record this.
Quoting from a news source: ”And then, so you have to tell Kamala Harris that you’ve had enough, that you just can’t take it anymore,” he said, encouraging his crowd “We can’t stand you. You’re a s— vice president.” “Such a horrible four years,” he said. “We had a horrible — think of the — everything they touch turns to —” he said, to which many members of the crowd reportedly yelled “s—.”
The hamburger stint was to muddle the media from the “message.” Kamala & the Democrats will stay on the high road to Victory, more determined.
Apropos kayfabe describing the Trump shtick – I think it is an excellent term for the creation of ‘Trump world’. Another aspect that remains to be described is the willing audience who want to believe that the pro wrestling they enjoy is real. Kayfabe is only a thing because the ‘marks’ really want it all to be real. The marks who work out it’s just a show to entertain them aren’t as ready to buy the tickets and merchandise.
I am currently in Rio De Janeiro.
Many Brazilians are upset about one particular part of this staged event. A lady came through drive-thru and Trump served her. The lady said: When you win, don’t let the U.S. become like Brazil where I am from.
Brazilian media is reporting that the lady was not even a Trump supporter, but a paid actress. If true, it would not be first time Trump used actors from Central Casting for one of his stunts.
The famous June 2015 escalator ride was the first time actors were used.
Thinking of that Jon Lovitz routine from SNL with the Master Thespian: “ACTING!”
Media asked Trump if he supports raising the federal minimum wage now that he has “worked” at McDonalds.
Trump responded: “Well I think this. These people work hard. They are great. And I just saw something – a beautiful process.”
That’s not exactly a “yes” to raising the federal wage.
Thank you so much, Rayne, for this post! It’s the best ever explanation I’ve so far read about Trump’s hollowness which has shown all the time. Everything is falling in place.
I followed the published WH calendar in the early 45th presidency for a while (until the hollow time became “executive time”). Even back then it seemed strange to me that each trip Trump undertook was split in many items: 1) leaves WH, 2) arrives at airport, 3) departing, 4) arriving at destination, 5) leaving destination airport to final destination, 6) holding event, 7) seq. the same backwards, x) arrives at WH.
Now I can read these entries as “Enter” and “Exit” stage directions.
And, BTW, Trump has admitted that he’s just playing roles years ago, on the Access Hollywood tape: “And when you’re a star …”
YES. He exited one role because he couldn’t hold it together any longer than five days at best. Then he’d enter a role he preferred, that of golfer and resort owner for the remainder of his week. That’s why he HAD TO spend ~25% of his term on the golf course.
Yes, too, to pussy grabbing as a perk of his roles.
The Cosplay among his to-be followers has been going on for decades. They just gave Trump the starring role and followed him.
Going back decades, James Howard Kunstler extensively observed that young men had taken on the dress of toddlers. Think baggy shorts, oversized tees, etc. Imagine the personality of a toddler cosplayer!
Then we got to see the militia-types dressup. Cosplaying loners who live in the woods.
The whole bunch, as Vice President Harris described: “Not Serious” People. I guess they all found each other, and their King or is it Godman?
What, no hair net to protect those fries? Maybe the boy in the tv bubble wants to cut regulations because they mess up his hair.
No OSHA or Health Dept approved gear. No hat or hairnet, no food-handler’s gloves, long-sleeved shirt and tie, suit trousers, those elevator shoes (will slip on wet surfaces!).
Thank you for this post Rayne! Thought you might enjoy this AOC speech given in PA yesterday:
“Donald Trump dresses up in a McDonald’s costume to make fun of you. Elon Musk dangles his dollars in front of you because he thinks your vote can be bought. These billionaires have absolutely no idea what our lives are like.”
It’s worth your time to watch her speech.
https://youtu.be/dSxKR6SVE5I
“But the real swing voter in this election, some of the most important swing voters in this election, are not Red to Blue. They are Couch to Booth.” -AOC
klynn – I meant to respond to your comment about AOC’s video. It’s good, thanks for sharing it. HuffPo picked it up, shared a shorter version.
I’m thinking about a follow-up including that video, will try to post it yet today.
The many persona of DJ Trump. We have been treated to photoshopped images of Trump as Jesus, as a Superhero, and for Sunday night’s game, as a Pittsburgh Steeler. And, of course, let’s not forget the photo of Giuliani and Trump as floozies.
His rallies are cosplay events for some. How else to explain the rally goers with diapers and those with large bandaids on their ears?
Trump is an aging performance artist and appears worn out from performing, which may explain his drifting into jock strap talk at his rally on Sunday and obscenity at the Al Smith Dinner.
His favorite persona – dictator, jock, tycoon, mobster, Don Juan, genius – all seem like efforts to impress stand-ins for his father – the real dictators, jocks, tycoons, etc. Trump’s cosplay is not for fun. It is a pathological necessity. I’m reminded of the Italian saying: The robe makes the monk. Which on one level is true but when you understand the history of clerical wrongdoing, isn’t.
“clerical wrongdoing”, How The Pope Enabled The ‘Legal’ Theft of Indigenous Land: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RlE5dhKIEAQ
Drag queen? He’s yet to show up in a dress. And, the fries, he’d not last at the job – bone spurs.
Pittsburgh Steeler fan impersonation: https://www.newsweek.com/sports/nfl/steelers-announce-they-will-host-donald-trump-sunday-1971748
Guessing, photo-op and out, and could not tell you the score of the game while there. Which other team. Which team had the ball when he exited. Who quarterbacked for the Steelers.
Excellent analysis, Rayne!
How would you characterize his obsession with penis sizes: Marco Rubio, Arnold Palmer?
He must feel some sense of short-coming in that department, or he would not be so vulgar and aggressive toward women in general. He seems to be trying to prove himself as equal to men who are “real” men in his strange image of what that represents.
The string of marriages, affairs, rapes, suggests kefabe to me. He is pretending to be a “man,” because he must have some sense of inadequacy in that department.
Article at CNN on Mar 4, 2016: Donald Trump defends size of his penis
Stormy Daniels described it as “smaller than average” but “not freakishly small” back in 2018.
Not that we ever wanted to know. I can’t think of any other President of the United States (or candidate for) who felt the need to brag in public about the size of his dick, not even Clinton.
Great post Rayne! I never realized how unvarying Trump’s costume was and how strange it is never to have seen him out of it.
Brioni custom suit, shirt, tie. Unimaginative design to minimize his fat ass and hide his small hands.
Oh yea…sometimes switches to a Hermes tie, That’s something phallic judging from his recent comments.
I just can’t go there.
Six to twelve grand just for the suit, probably half again more in Trump’s “plus” size, what with the extra tailoring.
Derek Guy says the wrinkles are because it’s a light-weight fabric.
He could win again. All the scorn, he might get more votes. And heaping on the scorn, does it say anything about how he won that 2016 contest? Say, if you don’t blame Comey, then why did he win?
I would say he’s LARPing, rather than cos-playing. And maybe, with him, it’s a distinction without a difference. But, yeah, his whole life has been about pretending he’s something he isn’t.
You are ALL right!
With his personality there’s LARPing going on for sure.
AND there cosplaying…
AND there’s kayfabe…
And
It’s bottomless.
See? He really can do it all! You just admitted it.
/s
Governor and Senator Bob Graham campaigned by doing work days but he actually worked at the jobs he took on and put in the hours. No cosplay or kayfabe for him but a real attempt at understanding what his constituents had to put up with. Graham also kept a diary in which he wrote down the names of everyone he met and updated every 15 minutes. Since I met him once, I suspect I’m in one of the entries.
And now I’m worried that Trump is going to give cosplay and larping a bad name. And maybe kayfabe, too, but I don’t care as much about that.
Rayne, have you seen the Goldberg piece just up in The Atlantic? It’s a gory autopsy of Trump’s military cosplaying. Having trouble capturing the URL on my phone, but it was posted exactly 2 hrs ago.
This one?
In this case I don’t think he’s cosplaying a Nazi. That he really is, just like his father. He would have received a lot of approval from his father for being America First just like dear old Dad.
Can’t wait for the Nazi banners to come out at Madison Square Garden. The ghost of Lucky Lindy is likely to be prominent, but even he promoted the US military. Trump treats them like rubes in a rigged card game.
But that’s not new for Republicans. CheneyBush’s chief of staff, Andrew Card, for example, was famous for telling the new annual intake of govt highflyers that they were fools to work for the federal govt – as he was doing.
Trump: ‘I Need the Kind of Generals That Hitler Had’
Hitler had 84 of his generals executed. https://ww2gravestone.com/84-german-generals-were-executed-by-hitler/
…lest they assassinate him and lead a revolt.
His cosplaying is described in the opening scene where he’s pretending to be a caring national leader willing to use his own funds to pay for the bereaved family’s funeral expenses out of his own pocket (in front of the cameras), and then cosplaying a Roy Cohenesque real estate mogul in front of the brass, screaming that $60,000 for a funeral was a ripoff, especially for burying a Mexican. And it wasn’t even his money.
A true monster under each facade, and in every respect.
Jeffery Goldberg interviewed by Tim Miller on The Bulwark Podcast
https://youtu.be/kenbOLZeC7A
Trump has no ideology he only has instincts which are all fascistic.
Although he is a flag hugger he has no sense of any deep values it represents, no sense of any deeper meaning to it eg democracy, rule of law, accountable government.
Most people in positions of power, even the bad ones at least pay lip service to democratic norms and at least pretend to adhere to them, but he neither knows what they are nor cares what they might be.
Kelly and others “are scared shitless” by what Trump is, and what he would unleash. Mad generals like Flynn are usually winnowed out, but there is the problem of the colonels, a vast pool, so he will always be able to find someone to do his bidding.
Trump has no concept of what a war crime is, found pushback on pardoning Gallagher incomprehensible “You soldiers are all killers anyway, so what’s the difference?”
No hair net. Health Dept., are u paying attention?
Imagine the extra clean-up that McD’s staff had to do, after Trump, his hair and make-up left.
NYT breaking news:
E. Coli Outbreak Linked to McDonald’s Quarter Pounders
Nearly 50 people have become ill and one person has died, amid infections that may have been caused by slivered onions, the C.D.C. reported.
Coincidence…?
(Sorry, Rayne, it’s been a long, shit, evening, and I couldn’t resist.)
Terrific post and comments. Bandy Lee (and associates,) and Mary Trump’s warnings are expert warnings.
Now Ezra Klein has weighed in with what social psychologists long have known: the forces of attraction in the ecology of a personality cult readily convert (so-called) bugs into features; delusions into reality; the abhorrent into the virtuous; disinhibition into entertainment/performance art. (Etc.)
This is, in out-of-fashion terms, a stew of primary and primal process.
How about a simple: Seriously damaged human beings support a seriously damaged human being.
Donald Trump is the vilest candidate for POTUS the U.S. has ever seen, by far. His loathsomeness extends to every aspect of his being: his continuous stream of lies, his scapegoating of immigrants, his demeaning of women, his utter disrespect for the office of the presidency, for the laws of the land, for the United States Constitution.
There is just no way any emotionally healthy human being would vote for someone like Donald Trump.
Treating my own thread as an open thread to say:
There is nothing quite so satisfying as getting a call from a wretched POS GOP congressional campaign which announces Donald Trump is live on the line — and then pressing a call zap button which plays an annoying tone and then announces, “We’re sorry, this number does not accept this kind of phone call.”
Eat shit, fascists. Get off my phone line.
Really must be desperate to call THIS house. Heh.
Too bad you didn’t keep them on the line. Every minute is a minute they’re losing. But I don’t know if I could have done it, I’d have lost my cool and told them off.
Nah. Waste of my time and my blood pressure doesn’t need it. They’re trying to influence my spouse and one of my kids — not happening on my phone line, on my time.
If I’m going to spend my precious time it’ll be at a fundraiser this week for the POS GOPr’s competitor.
Operating under “Duty to Warn,” 233 mental health professionals signed off on a letter to be published in the New York Times, calling Trump an “imminent catastrophic public danger” to the world should he be re-elected based upon recent evidence on display in his public appearances.
https://youtu.be/n7RPfkom7YI