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The Apprentice: Your Civic Duty
Well, I’m still mighty skeptical, but you’ve convinced me that I can no longer dismiss as totally lunatic the rumor that Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders won the New Hampshire primaries. So this brings me to an interesting problem, as a concerned and responsible citizen.
Sounds like you think there’s a non-zero chance that Trump could be the Republican presidential nominee. Okay, I believe it. Time to take that idea seriously.
But it’s very difficult to figure out what he would really do in office based on his past experience in office, since he hasn’t got one. I literally can’t make sense of his stream-of-consciousness speeches. He’s gonna be tough, he’s gonna be smart, he’s gonna build a wall, he’s gonna take care of everyone and it’s all going to go quickly, but I truly don’t understand what he’s proposing to do. I mean that. Not being snide, and certainly not dismissing the concerns of people who support him, because I agree that if so many Americans think he speaks for them, it’s urgently important to understand why and what they want. I truly, literally, mean that I don’t get what he’s saying, because it makes no sense to me as a plan or as something a president has the constitutional power to do.
There seems to be a non-zero chance, now, that I’ll have to choose between him and Bernie Sanders. Sanders makes quite good sense and is very specific about what he plans to do — and he plans to do things that I believe would be a very, very bad idea. So, and I’m being quite serious, here, I think it’s time for me to try to figure out how Donald Trump views the world. And I don’t think reading The Art of the Deal is the key, though I’ve ordered it. I think, very seriously, that watching all 14 seasons of The Apprentice would give me a much better insight.
I’m halfway through the first season. My first impression is that I don’t know why this show was a hit. If Trump weren’t the GOP front runner, I’d never have finished the first episode. I’m not saying this out of any kind of snobbery: I love trashy TV, and I was absolutely gripped to the first season of Survivor, to the point of racing home every week on Wednesday night in order not to miss it. So I was thinking, “Well, at least this will be fun.”
But it’s not, so far. It’s badly edited and paced, very boring, and there are no likeable characters in it yet. I want them all to lose. They’re all screechy, boastful, obnoxious, obsequious to Trump and mean to each other, and they’re all unsympathetic, which to my mind is a huge dramatic mistake. If there’s not a single character you can like, you don’t care who wins, so there’s no dramatic tension, so far. Nor has Trump so far made himself seem like a fair, wise, or judicious judge of talent, or someone who obviously surrounds himself with reliable advisors, which of course is what I’m looking for, given the circumstances.
But I don’t want to prejudice you unfairly, so beyond saying that I’m only on Episode Five, and maybe it gets better (no spoilers, please), I’ll just note that the editing is 97th-rate. The pacing is off, it gets very boring, very fast, and it’s not the guilty pleasure I’d hoped.
Still, I mean it: I think it’s now a civic duty to watch it. Because we might really have to decide whether he’d at least do a better job than the socialist.
Will you join me? I’d like to discuss it with other people who are wondering what on earth this man would do in a job where, as Eliot Cohen put it, he’ll “face the most difficult international environment in more than half a century, but without the economic and military edge that we can see—only in retrospect, admittedly—Dwight D. Eisenhower and John F. Kennedy could take for granted.” He’d be making decision after decisions that affects every corner of the planet based only on instinct and a small group of trusted advisors, so the way he approaches such decisions is quite important. Here’s the first episode. What do you take from it?
I realize this isn’t like reading Churchill’s memoirs, but it’s really all we’ve got, isn’t it?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bjaYqk59y0g
Published in Entertainment, General, Politics
I suppose I could wear a hair shirt, too.
Claire, this is a refreshing approach to understanding the political climate and Trump’s appeal. The reflexive approach that has dominated until now has generated little information and much acrimony. Personally, I still pray for Cruz.
In the spirit of cooperation, here are the two characteristics of Trump that appeal to me, and from what I divine via the media and my acquaintances, to many others.
#1: He loves the USA, a trait not to be diminished. We’ve seen all too many who profess to, but are terminally narcissistic and mendacious. Trump is the anti-apologist, anti-PC torch bearer.
#2: He is a man of positive action and loves a good fight. Many have grown weary of the empty rhetoric and damaging actions typical of Obama and the John Kerry types, followed by weakness and capitulation. (Not that Kerry himself is important to our affairs; he’s just a great example of a grating bureaucrat.)
Enjoy your venture into the Heart of Darkness!
That’s the thing about a lot of television nowadays – they don’t think it’s necessary to actually like anyone on screen.
The theory used to be “we need someone for the audience to like.” Now, it’s “We just need someone for them to focus on.” It’s okay if the people watching hate everyone on screen, as long as they keep watching.
I’ve heard from Trumpkins who have read The Art of the Deal that most of Trump’s actions and strategies are clearly outlined there. I’m very interested to hear your thoughts on it once you read it.
Thanks for doing this. I will trust your judgement and anticipate your insights. I’ll have a root canal for you in return.
No one’s going to join me? I have to carry this weight alone? Come on, guys, watch it with me — it’s no worse than the GOP debates, at least.
Claire, I commend you. No way could I sit through that type of programming.
I do have a philosophical question for you. How are we to know anything about the candidates other than what they tell us unless we know them on a personal basis? I understand that Trump’s language has been, well, let’s just say disjointed, but at the end of the day all of them are just saying words. Some people find Cruz to be insincere in what he says. Others find Rubio to be insincere about a specific issue. At the end of the day, what do any of them believe really?
I hate reality TV. If someone would collapse the episodes into the 8min of actual content that they contain, I would watch those versions. Until then, I would rather shove saxophone reeds under my fingernails
It’s such a mistake. Obviously, characters in any drama should be complex, like real people are, with virtues and sins and personalities that seem real — and the original idea with reality TV, what made Survivor so gripping, is that we’d never seen anything like that, and clearly these were real people. The characters in The Apprentice seem to have been chosen for their obvious and ludicrous vice, shallowness, and greed. I can’t tell whether that’s a conscious decision — are we supposed to be looking at this and judging them for it? — or are we supposed to admire those qualities? In the final scene of the first episode, where all the girls are admiring Trump’s apartment and saying, “So rich, so rich,” I can’t believe that he’d have cast that scene ironically. I can’t believe he means his whole life to be ironic. But surely people did watch that scene and think, “These women have skanky, degraded values.” And the producers and editors must have been entirely aware of that. Were they laughing behind the scenes at Trump? Is he laughing behind the scenes at himself? Seriously, what do you make of it?
I stopped watching this morning, and now it’s afternoon, here, and I literally can’t remember who the characters are. I agree that it’s more important — dramatically — to have someone you focus on, even if it’s someone you don’t like. Richard III’s a pretty good play. But none of these characters are memorable, so far. Literally — I’ve been watching it, but I’m only able to pull up, “The black one with the weird name,” and “the fat one.”
I would usually say, “Let’s look at their record in office.” And in Trump’s case, I’d say, “Failing that, we have to look at his record in life.” Actions speak louder than words, they say, and they say it for a reason. But I also make judgements in the totally normal, human way — do they sound sincere? Do they seem “presidential” to me?
And of course, no one has experience of being the President save those who’ve done it, and all politicians must lie to put together a large enough coalition to be elected. So in a way, yes, it’s impossible to know who means it, and even if, should they mean it, they’ll be able to do it once confronted with the real constraints of governing. But I think I could do a much better job of predicting what Cruz’s first 100 days in office would be like, or Hillary’s. If you ask me what Trump would do in his first 100 days, I genuinely wouldn’t know. He’d obviously be under huge pressure to build a wall, but what’s he going to do when Mexico declines to pay for it? Would that part matter, not matter? I don’t know.
Donald Trump is not an ideological person. What he will do is what he thinks he can accomplish and give him acclaim. He is a builder, one who executes a plan. He will build the fence for sure. He will do something about the immigration mess, though I highly doubt he will ship people back. He will probably have an alternative to Obamacare, though we conservatives may hate his plan as much as Obamacare. His fiscal plan that he’s proposed is mainline Republican, and he’ll try to execute it, even if he doesn’t fully believe in it. On foreign policy he is not a hawk, but he will build the military and he will try to solve problems where he can without intervention.
Where I will have the biggest heartburn will be on judges and social policy. He’s a Liberal with NY values (Ted Cruz is right), and with the Supreme Court in the balance I fear he will appoint a lefty.
With Donald Trump, it’s about him and his reputation. He will build monuments that reflect back on him. He will do what gives him the greater glory.
Oh and how can I forget: he’s a protectionist and may cause a trade war and a depression.
Thanks Claire. That’s pretty much my take on it too. I also think that for some that is the appeal of Trump, nobody knows what he would do because he isn’t a traditional politician. Enjoy the Apprentice.
One last thing, his uncouth, boorish behavior and emotional outbursts will be a disgrace to the office of the presidency and a poor reflection upon the United States of America.
The important question is what do they think is going to happen if they don’t pay it. They are aware of the national mood as anybody.
The second important question is that there is that trump has some pretty solid sticks with which to beat mexico into line, but what will be the carrot?
When they first started I enjoyed quite a few of The Apprentice episodes. It’s really a neat premise.
Like Clinton? He embarrassed our country greatly.
Curious if you’ve read it.
Also, what exactly is a Trumpkin? I don’t do Twitter, so am way out of the loop.
Pejorative for enthusiastic trump supporters.
Claire, I think you’re making a mistake by using The Apprentice as an augury into Trump’s thinking. Most so-called “reality shows” that are framed as contests have a disclaimer that basically says the producers have the final say on who stays and who goes.
You may want to pause the final credits to see if Trump’s show has a similar disclaimer. If it does, you’re likely seeing the producer’s decisions, not Trump’s. Especially if you get to the “celebrity” editions of the show.
-Dan
Like Obama? He continues to embarrass our country greatly….
Yes Clinton did. Clinton’s indiscretions were for the most part hidden. He didn’t anticipate them getting public. For Trump, it’s his public persona that is embarrassing.
Yes, or either get us into a war we shouldn’t be in or fail to get us into ones we do need to be in. I can’t at all understand what he thinks about foreign policy, or whether he knows anything at all about it. I just don’t know.
Obama is an embarrassment in his failures and policy. I don’t find his behavior to be boorish.
Okay! Someone else who’s seen it. Yes, it is a great premise, and I thought the first few tricks — the lemonade stand, designing the ad campaign — were clever. But it’s so undermined by the crummy characters and by their lack of cleverness, and by the way they all keep shrieking, the girls especially, which is such an annoying tic. Why didn’t they tell them, “Don’t shriek, it doesn’t look good on television?”
Do you remember who won the first few episodes? If you do, I’ll be surprised, because I don’t think the characters are in any way memorable.
I don’t believe he knows anything about foreign policy. I’ve never seen him talk in any depth. The only consistent point he’s made outside of talking points has been his dissatisfaction with Bush getting into Iraq.
No I don’t. That’s got to be at least ten years ago. I believe it was a youngish looking man. I’m talking about the final winner at the end of the season. You realize each season has a final winner?
Perhaps, there is a widespread perception that we are already in a trade war and are losing.
This thought is so upsetting to me that I find it very hard to be rational about what his presidency would otherwise be like. I feel overwhelmingly embarrassed by him. I want to sink into the earth when I think of him representing America. The past eight years have been, among other things, so humiliating. And when I think of not only having no relief from the embarrassment, but Donald Trump in the White House, the sense of utter national humiliation is almost unbearable.
Yes, but I haven’t gotten there yet — only on Episode 5.
You know what the biggest danger of Trump is? He may well be an effective president, especially compared to the last few. That will accelerate the march away from the Constitution and toward the imperial presidency.