Trump the wrestler

In his Trump Plaza in Atlantic City, the enthusiast of professional wrestling events Donald Trump hosted in 2007 WrestleMania 23. A video gone viral at the time with 342,000 likes shows the ‘Battle of Billionaires’ where Trump throws down WWE owner Vince McMahon to a mat beside the ring and punches him repeatedly in the face, while the audience is cheering frantically. The World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) is a form of athletic theater centered around mock combat. In a staged show dispute in the ring Trump was bragging that he is taller, better looking, stronger, and richer than McMahon and challenged him to a fight.

Eventually the gentlemen in suits agreed to choose a proxy each and agreed that the winning substitute’s boss will shave the hair of the loser’s chooser’s head bald. Trump’s Bobby Lashley won against McMahon’s Umaga (not a Filipino but a Samoan). Then in a show of swagger Trump shaved McMahon’s hair off to the crowd’s frenetic roaring.

The moment blurred the line between entertainment and politics years before Trump would enter the White House --and remains one of the most surreal celebrity crossovers in history.

But worse: Trump’s background in professional wrestling profoundly shapes his presidency. It introduces a theatrical audience-first style. A Trump event frequently features a blend of pageantry, music and, hypermasculinity that closely mirrors a WWE production. Professional wrestling is not a team sport, it is man against man. One wins and the other is the loser. The winner is (apparently) more brutal and cleverer in inventing more mean tricks to hurt his opponent. The loser must be punished and humiliated.

Professional wrestling unlike the Olympic discipline knows no rules, only victory counts. Trump considers himself as the greatest winner of all times. That is why his ruling style is so reckless and rules-despising. He is adamant that only he has all the wisdom and takes all the right decisions. To his team he appointed incompetent yes-men and beautiful but spineless women.

One of them is Linda McMahon, a former WWE executive who is presently his Education secretary. Trump’s ‘team’ has to dance to his tune. His Make America Great Again followers he calls intelligent while his opponents are stigmatized stupid and low-IQ. Like in wrestling announcements, Trump gives his antagonists derogatory insulting, nicknames: Crooked Joe, Mini Mike, Sloppy Chris, Crazy Hillary, Governor Newscum, Marjorie Traitor Green etc. The list of American politicians comprises 109 such monickers, media figures get 25 names and foreign leaders figure eight names. Himself he calls: A Very Stable Genius and Your Favorite President.

On June 14 this year, Mr. Trump was sitting cage-side and watched the Ultimate Fight Championship (UFC) on the grounds of the American people’s White House to celebrate the United States’ 250th founding and his 80th birthday. But his birthday bash was booed. Not everyone showed up to celebrate the $60-million extravagantly spending spectacle. Two Virginia residents sued to stop the event arguing that the people’s White House was abused for a private commercial sports show. Others deem professional wrestling brutal, barbaric, foolish, counter-educational and violence-furthering. But Trump wants to preserve for ever “The Claw” over a wrestling octagon and the 500-seat arena that rises 30 meters above White House ground.

Historians and preservationists view a profane ‘tent’ covering the facade of the White House as a cultural and legal tragedy. Nationalists see in it a desecration of the National Landmark and of the National Park. They all are furious that Trump evaded the imperative standard review processes by the National Capital Planning Commission.