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.
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
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.