President Trump: celebrity-in-chief and the desecration of political authority

ABSTRACT

This article argues that Donald Trump’s persona and his dismissal of established conventions work to position him as a celebrity-in-chief who desecrates politics, political authority and the political scene. To pursue this, I draw on sociological and philosophical analyses of political authority developed by sociologists (including Lowenthal, Sennett and Arendt) alongside later work on political persona, celebrity and political appeal. I explore historical changes in the social function and appeal of role models and celebrity and reflect on how these changes have contributed towards a decline in political authority. The final section focuses on Trump’s early days in power to illustrate how he is represented and read as a rogue celebrity politician who has desecrated political authority. This is achieved through a critical engagement with Michael Wolff’s 2018 fly-on-the-wall account of life inside Team Trump entitled Fire and Fury: Inside the White House.

KEYWORDS:

• Trump
• authority
• celebrity
• persona
• desecration
• politics

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. https://www.whitehouse.gov/about-the-white-house/the-executive-branch/.

2. https://www.inaugural.senate.gov/58th-inauguration/ceremony/index.html.

3. https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/the-inaugural-address/.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Anita Biressi

Anita Biressi is Professor of Media and Society. Her research interests span documentary and popular factual entertainment, social class and cultural studies and feminist media studies. She has published recently on the media representation of the ‘good girl’ in politics and on sexual assault in the news.