# Donald Trump: Performance Artist **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [December 10, 2018, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trump-performance-artist/825893 "2018-12-10T13:42:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2018, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trump-performance-artist/825893/1 "2018-12-10T13:42:20Z")
I’ve finally figured out what the Trump presidency really is. He seems to be far too clueless or deliberately and transparently mendacious to be a real politician – his "tax breaks for the Middle Class announcement just before the 2018 midterms were too obviously impossible, his claims that Mexico would pay for a Wall to absurd, his repeated statements that China was paying billions because of his tariffs too disprovable (and if he was simply wrong, he would’ve been corrected many times over by now). A lot of people claim that Trump simply blundered into a presidency he didn’t expect to win and now doesn’t really want, but if that were the case he could easily invalid himself out. “Bone spurs” worked before for him. No, there must be some other explanation. He’s a Performance Artist, the kind that bursts unexpected and unwabnted into you life to impose his sense of art upon you, challenging your expectations and values, and involving the public as part of hius performance > [@](#): > > The creative engagement fostered by the artist was just as much a part of the artwork as the environment he constructed around it. And what about those lectures, talks, and moments of creativity that occured within that environment–wouldn’t they be part of the artwork, too? > > Ryan Gander created a similar participatory situation in his Locked Room Scenario in 2011, crafting an environment that led viewers into a journey of discovery and doubt and as they began to question the authenticity of the supposed “group exhibition” they found themselves in. Roman Ondák’s works have turned audiences into participants, both willingly as when they volunteered to be measured in Measuring the Universe (2007), and perhaps unwittingly when confronted with a queue waiting for nothing in particular in Good Feelings in Good Times(2003). > **[What is performance art? (article) | Khan Academy](https://www.khanacademy.org/partner-content/tate/participation-performance/performance/a/what-is-performance-art)** > > Learn for free about math, art, computer programming, economics, physics, chemistry, biology, medicine, finance, history, and more. Khan Academy is a nonprofit with the mission of providing a free, world-class education for anyone, anywhere. Performance artists, like many artists, frequently try to provoke extreme reactions among their spectators and unwilling participants. This is precisely what Trump is doing. People keep expecting him to come up with some sort of coherent presidency, but he manages to upset even many of his supporters, and he constantly changes his staff and has avoided the kinds of briefings and filling of positions that virtually everyone would think essential to a presidency. It’s the same way that many people kept expecting Andy Kaufman to act like a standard comedian, or kept watching him in the hope that there’d be a punch line or some comedic payoff, but the real joke was that there wasn’t anything. In just the same way, Trump keeps making completely absurd un-presidential tweets, appointing people devoted to destroying the institutions under their authority to key positions, coddling bigots and anti-American authoritarian dictators and making nonsensical policy decisions. I think one object may be to demonstrate how far a party will go to stay in power, but it might simply be utter nihilism. It’s hard to tell those two apart. ---
**Author:** ![Maastricht](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a88e57/32.png) [@Maastricht](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maastricht)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2018, 1:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trump-performance-artist/825893/2 "2018-12-10T13:46:27Z")
> **[My Brief Time As Donald Trump's Campaign Manager](https://www.cracked.com/blog/what-i-learned-accidentally-managing-trumps-campaign)** > > To do over again, sure, I probably wouldn't have helped Donald Trump run for president. ---
**Author:** ![andros](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e480ec/32.png) [@andros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/andros)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2018, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trump-performance-artist/825893/3 "2018-12-10T14:00:02Z")
301.81 (f60.81) ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2018, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trump-performance-artist/825893/4 "2018-12-10T14:08:54Z")
This morning on Maddowblog: > **[Faced with scandal, Trump seems oblivious to his precarious state](https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/faced-scandal-trump-seems-oblivious-his-precarious-state-msna1173291)** > > Trump instinctively believes every piece of incriminating evidence is "totally" good for him. That should make Republicans nervous. > [@](#): > > Earlier this year, Donald Trump ignored the advice of his team and declassified portions of the so-called “Nunes memo.” Despite the fact that the document left the White House worse off than it was before, the president claimed at the time, reality be damned, that he’d been “totally vindicated.” > > Four months later, in June, the Justice Department’s inspector general’s office published a report on the federal law enforcement’s behavior during the 2016 presidential election. The IG effectively shredded every narrative Trump had peddled for months, prompting the president to say the document “totally exonerated” him. > > And on Friday night, in the wake of incredibly damaging court filings, it happened again. > After the filing from Mueller, Trump tweeted that it “totally clears the President. Thank you!” But in fact there was nothing in either court filing that exonerated Trump, and one portion strongly suggested that Trump was personally involved in a campaign finance violation. > > The Manhattan prosecutors said Cohen had paid off two women to suppress their stories about affairs with Trump – a campaign expense that was improperly not reported – and said he did so “in coordination with and at the direction of” Trump. Sounds like he’s been taking lessons from Robert Morse in _a Guide for the Married Man_: Gotta be Performance Art. Nobody could do this with a straight face otherwise. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2018, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trump-performance-artist/825893/5 "2018-12-10T14:10:43Z")
> [@andros](#): > > 301.81 (f60.81) Explain, please? Edited to add – Never mind. Google is my friend: [https://www.theravive.com/therapedia/narcissistic-personality-disorder-dsm--5-301.81-(f60.81)](https://www.theravive.com/therapedia/narcissistic-personality-disorder-dsm--5-301.81-(f60.81)) > [@](#): > > Narcissistic Personality Disorder DSM-5 301.81 (F60.81) ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2018, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trump-performance-artist/825893/6 "2018-12-10T14:59:20Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > Gotta be Performance Art. Nobody could do this with a straight face otherwise. Apparently the guy officiating Trump’s first wedding was — Norman Vincent Peale, of **Power Of Positive Thinking** fame. So imagine for a moment a guy who took a self-help guide as his Bible: trying, for _decades,_ to drown out negative thoughts while believing in the triumphant mantra he recites to himself like a hypnotist’s patter: doing his best to wish away doubt while struggling, _religiously,_ to use enthusiasm as a magic carpet. Could he do that with a straight face? ---
**Author:** ![Knowed\_Out](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/knowed_out/32/7380_2.png) [@Knowed\_Out](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knowed_Out)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2018, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trump-performance-artist/825893/7 "2018-12-10T15:16:49Z")
A performance artist does make and maintain his own reality to stay in character. Trump never admits to a mistake, never apologizes, never accepts facts that counter his own perceptions, and always maintains his identity no matter how much it crashes and burns. and the topper, he will never admit to being a performance artist. Not even when the US collapses around him. ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2018, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trump-performance-artist/825893/8 "2018-12-10T15:34:17Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > This morning on Maddowblog: > > [Faced with scandal, Trump seems oblivious to his precarious state](http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/faced-scandal-trump-seems-oblivious-his-precarious-state#break) > > Sounds like he’s been taking lessons from Robert Morse in _a Guide for the Married Man_: > > Gotta be Performance Art. Nobody could do this with a straight face otherwise. Also from the Maddow Blog: > [@](#): > > … > The White House is adopting what one official termed a “shrugged shoulders” strategy for the Mueller findings, calculating that most GOP base voters will believe whatever the president tells them to believe… “The New Deal” “The New Frontier” “The Great Society” “The Shrugged Shoulders” It’s this administration’s strategy for everything. Finally we have a name for it. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2018, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trump-performance-artist/825893/9 "2018-12-10T15:45:33Z")
I guess clowns are a sort of performance artist. Even Horror-Clowns. ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2018, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trump-performance-artist/825893/10 "2018-12-10T16:26:00Z")
Nah. I got to go with Occam’s razor with Trump. He’s just a crooked moron. ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2018, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trump-performance-artist/825893/11 "2018-12-10T16:43:38Z")
[quote=“CalMeacham, post:4, topic:825893”] Sounds like he’s been taking lessons from Robert Morse in _a Guide for the Married Man_: [/QUOTE] I liked the sketch where Jayne Mansfield misplaced her bra at Terry Thomas' house, making him age in weeks. Still works for Donny Two-scoops if Ms. Mansfield played Stormy Daniels or a Russian hooker. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2018, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trump-performance-artist/825893/12 "2018-12-10T17:13:43Z")
No, I can’t believe Trump is giving a performance. I don’t think he has the detachment and self-awareness. Any performer would break character when they realized the size of the role they’re playing. I believe Trump really believes in himself. He’s completely deluded but he really does think he’s doing a great job. And he doesn’t understand most of what’s going on around him and see how it conflicts with his views. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2018, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trump-performance-artist/825893/13 "2018-12-10T18:44:07Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > I guess clowns are a sort of performance artist. Even Horror-Clowns. Trump is an Ass-Clown. ---
**Author:** ![VinylTurnip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b2d939/32.png) [@VinylTurnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VinylTurnip)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2018, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trump-performance-artist/825893/14 "2018-12-10T18:46:04Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > No, I can’t believe Trump is giving a performance. I don’t think he has the detachment and self-awareness. Any performer would break character when they realized the size of the role they’re playing. If this is his Verbal Kint, I really don’t want to see his Keyser Söze. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2018, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trump-performance-artist/825893/15 "2018-12-10T20:08:07Z")
He said “smocking gun” twice. _TWICE_ in the same post. So it’s not a typo. Either he really doesn’t know how to spell it, or he’s performing again. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2018, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trump-performance-artist/825893/16 "2018-12-10T20:46:55Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > He said “smocking gun” twice. _TWICE_ in the same post. So it’s not a typo. Either he really doesn’t know how to spell it, or he’s performing again. There’s a level of stupidity where you’re aware of how stupid you are. A person like that would realize they’re not sure how to spell some words and would either avoid those words, or use a spellcheck, or dictate their statements to somebody else who’s a better speller. But there are people who fall below that level. These are the people who are too stupid to understand how stupid they are. They make mistakes without realizing they’re making mistakes. In the past, this was known as the Dunning–Kruger effect. I suspect that in the future it will be known as the Trump effect. ---
**Author:** ![Inigo\_Montoya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inigo_montoya/32/124_2.png) [@Inigo\_Montoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inigo_Montoya)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2018, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trump-performance-artist/825893/17 "2018-12-10T21:23:03Z")
Well, and it also lets [del]him[/del] his lawyer come back later and say stuff like, “… never said anything about a smoking gun!” ---
**Author:** ![Measure\_for\_Measure](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/measure_for_measure/32/557_2.png) [@Measure\_for\_Measure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Measure_for_Measure)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2018, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trump-performance-artist/825893/18 "2018-12-10T22:52:24Z")
Timothy Snyder, emphasis added: Believe in truth.To abandon facts is to abandon freedom. If nothing is true, then no one can criticize power, because there is no basis upon which to do so. **If nothing is true, then all is spectacle.** The biggest wallet pays for the most blinding lights. You submit to tyranny when you renounce the difference between what you want to hear and what is actually the case. This renunciation of reality can feel natural and pleasant, but the result is your demise as an individual—and thus the collapse of any political system that depends upon individualism. As observers of totalitarianism such as Victor Klemperer noticed, truth dies in four modes, all of which we have just witnessed. The first mode is the open hostility to verifiable reality, which takes the form of presenting inventions and lies as if they were facts… [How to resist tyranny in a 'post-truth' world](https://www.penguin.co.uk/articles/2017/how-to-resist-tyranny-post-truth.html) ---
**Author:** ![Sherrerd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sherrerd/32/8_2.png) [@Sherrerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sherrerd)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2018, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trump-performance-artist/825893/19 "2018-12-10T23:44:21Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > He’s a Performance Artist … No. A performance artist, by definition, takes an interest in probable and actual reactions other people have to his or her work. Donald Trump is not capable of taking an interest in the probable or actual reactions other people have, because to Donald Trump, _ **there are no other people** _. We are all merely cardboard cutouts in the Glorious Donald Trump Story. Sometimes we behave the way he wants (as at rallies), but most of the time we behave really, really badly–failing to give him the praise and adoration we are ‘supposed’ to give him. He’s not an artist. Artists may rail against their audiences, but they are aware their audiences exist. Trump’s incapable of that. ---
**Author:** ![Buck\_Godot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/buck_godot/32/6573_2.png) [@Buck\_Godot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Buck_Godot)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2018, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trump-performance-artist/825893/20 "2018-12-10T23:52:21Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > There’s a level of stupidity where you’re aware of how stupid you are. A person like that would realize they’re not sure how to spell some words and would either avoid those words, or use a spellcheck, or dictate their statements to somebody else who’s a better speller. He didn’t misspell anything. Its the laying fake news Liberal Websters dictionary that’s got it wrong. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trump-performance-artist/825893.md?page=2)