Is Donald Trump a villain - or a hero?

Line by line, scene by scene and act by act, Donald Trump has been playing his role to perfection in the tragicomedy of the Great Republican Tail-Chase. At times he's the top fool, the kingly jester among mediocre clowns, bellowing soliloquies of comedic angst and chillingly truthful insights. He brays that he's surrounded by jackasses, stiffs, and weak-minded idiots. He can bray with impunity because he is the jester, the one player who's allowed to speak his mind to the purported boss of all bosses — the people. (Whispered aside: "They aren't; that however is just part of the comedy of misperceived roles.")

Yet, as noted, this is a tragicomedy in which Trump co-stars. His lines are not all jokes. Humor plays to the gallery and thus is more manifest in meaning. It's when the Donald waxes serious that we should listen attentively or give a close reading. And this week the jester morphed into the shiveringly villainous when he declared "I am what I am." Palilaliac that he is, Trump was compelled to repeat it. "I am what I am."

I frame those lines as "shiveringly" villainous, for I'll never forget the deep-freeze shock I experienced upon first reading Iago's announcement to Roderigo and audience: "I am not what I am." (Italics mine). Shakespeare was Hitchcock before Hitchcock was cool. There is no unfolding of Iago's villainy in Shakespeare's telling; the playwright puts it right upfront — he tells us who the villain is, in Act 1, Scene 1, and he lets us in, in the villain's own words, on how the villain intends to proceed. To others Iago will seem what he is, but he is not what he is. From there on he weaves his web of deceit, slaughter ensues, and in the end, Iago seals his own doom.

Funny, huh? Ah but it is, in Trump's case, as he assures us far less ironically that he is what he is. But is he? Is he the jester, or is he a villainous player of intricate deceit? That Trump is both comedically and wickedly clever is without question. Who else has commanded the headlines for weeks on end? Who else will have all eyes on him next week? And who else has magnificently exposed the raw hatreds and superficialities of the base audience?

Who cheers for him? The rabble, for the rabble believes Donald Trump is what he is — a reflection of their complex hatreds and easy fixes.

All of which leads me to think that Trump is playing them for The Fool — a fool, in their case, without wits. His Iagoesque deceit is what it is, which is to say, it is not what it is. It is subterranean, not superficial; it's an entertaining, audience-pleasing mix of easy hatreds and no fixes whatsoever; it is a stellar performance of deceit-as-self-doom — a doom in which the self is numerous, and those selves are spread wide.

And there I read Trump as the villain-as-hero. Just as Othello is Iago's play, the Great Republican Tail-Chase is a Trumpian triumph of singular note. It is what it is, and what it is is not what it seems. It is not the audience's bellringing celebration of one man's fearless honesty against the staid, ghastly establishment; it is, rather, the audience's unmasking as a blockheaded fool. And our hero is the one ripping off the mask. In a lovely twist, he himself may not even know that he's more hero than villain in this Shakespearean tragicomedy.

In an even lovelier twist, Trump may be be more applauded than doomed by history. Somebody had to expose the audience, and only Nixon could go to China.

 

Comments

[lawrence]

In an even lovelier twist, Trump may be be more applauded than doomed by history.

Or history may treat him as what happens on soon to be cancelled new TV show as the writers get rid of an annoying supporting actor. Only to be remembered by the fans of the show.

We're only in the previews of this play.

[Peter G]

I'll be damned Trump is Popeye. It explains so much. His campaign is essentially the lyrics to the Popeye theme.

[Anne J]

"I yam what I yam"

Peter, I know this may be off topic but you are the one I wanted to ask: Please forgive me if I've already asked this before, but you have said that Citizens United created the over crowded republican field we have now. How come the same is not true on the Democratic side?

[Bob]

The existentialist phrase put in Popeye's mouth by Max Fleischer, "I am what I am," is funny because Popeye is a cartoon character who absurdly considers his own existence. Trump, however, is a man of flesh, bone and possibly hair, not to mention lawyers and money. Maybe he's like the tragic character Hamlet and considers the important question "to be or not to be." Suffering the slings and arrows of pundits, news outlets, the other Republican candidates, the RNC, television producers, the Kochs, people with three-digit IQ's and so on, he might now see his candidacy as a fight for more than life but for his very brand. The Republicans have a cunning man-ape both cornered and by the ears, and the show must go on. Thursday's debate promises high comedy for both the boxes and gallery. Break a leg and while you're at it take care not to get your faces bitten off, Republicans.

[Peter G]

Btw I read Trump as a Shakespearean fool who is clearly playing to the groundlings.

[Peter G]

There is no a priori reason this could not happen and to some extent Clinton is getting funding from the moneyed classes. But the sort of egos predisposed to meddle in politics to this degree are exactly the sort of people whose faith in their own inherent superiority is fed by right wing ideology. I would go so far as to say right wing ideology is tailored to feed those very egos. And they are getting exactly what they deserve in consequence. None of this precludes the arrival on the left of another Roosevelt but I note that Roosevelt had a patrician sense of duty that is found almost exclusively in old money. Even the elder Bush had a trace of this in his political biography.

[Gary on the Left Coast]

I still vacillate between PM's take and the HuffPo's take on how to cover the Donald and continue to doubt whether such a well authored commentary as this one is justified by the absurdity of the subject. Zero chance the Donald will be elected, so I guess having fun at his expense is no harm.

That said, the denouement of this post is right on: exposing the vacuity and lack of seriousness among a large proportion of this sad, sad electorate.

Beautifully stated, as ever, PM... Thanks.

[bbkingfish]

Team Jeb! never dreamed their Trump Summer Offensive would work so well.

Now, if Christie, Rubio, Graham, and Carly can be anywhere near as effective in the roles on T-J!, the voters should get the 2016 Hillary-Jeb cage match that everyone wants.

[Simon Bett]

it really depends on the perceptions of the people and how they like him/dislike him. but in truth, he is a national and international leader