I would have always believed it impossible for a Michael Scott to really exist… then, about a year into his tenure, I realized that that is exactly who Trump reminded me of.
Mentionedcuz I am binging superfan episodes on Peacock. (Someone needs to make sure Billie Eilish knows about the superfan eps… eps including allthe stuff cut originally, frequently a lot of material…)
I would disagree on the assessment personally. Michael Scott was very socially awkward and was in a job that he was just not qualified for, but he showed time and again that he really and truly cared for his underlings and that he was a decent guy under it all. None of those qualities would apply to Trump.
Someone posted the other day they’d like to hear Michael Scott explain Critical Race Theory.
This view of him (Scott) is a source of major disagreement… I am on the other side after watching so much. Total narcissist, no genuine feeling for others at all.
I knew a Thai version of Michael Scott. He was a brain surgeon who was named dean of a public-health school at a prestigious university in Bangkok. I understand he was a decent surgeon, but he had no social skills whatsoever. His jokes always fell flat and insulted potential donors. He insisted on being nominally in charge of “everything.” A cleaning lady at the college, who was married, became pregnant, and he was mortally offended that she did not ask his permission first (although that really is more of a Thai thing). I worked at that college for a year and had first-hand observations of all this.
I agree with SwissMan. He really did care about his employees, he just had no idea how to express it acceptably. True, was also incredibly insecure and self-centered, but he wasn’t a narcissist.
And the second difference - several episodes made it clear that Michael had been an excellent salesman, before he was promoted to branch manager. He had a bunch of sales trophies on his desk, he signed the Hammermill deal at the paper convention, he got Dunder-Mifflin to buy him out after he left for way more money than his “company” was worth. He’s a classic example the Peter Principle. Whereas Trump was never excellent at anything useful, just self-aggrandizement
Season 1 Michael Scott was pretty Trumpy. It wasn’t until they retooled him the next season that he became more caring and more of just a buffoon.
One could also make the case for Michael as something of a George W. Bush knockoff, right down to his penchant for malapropisms and his perpetually scowling second-in-command.