Analysis: How Sly Stallone and Gloria Gaynor explain Trump and his presidency

CNN

10 hours ago

President Donald Trump would love cultural elites to sniff at his Kennedy Center honorees.
He relished unveiling the stars he'll fete at the iconic arts center's annual gala later this year, after motorcading to the complex Wednesday through streets now patrolled, on his orders, by federal agents and army reservists.
The line-up explains a lot about him, his power and why he's president.
'Rocky' star Sylvester Stallone, Broadway legend Michael Crawford, disco icon Gloria Gaynor, country crooner George Strait and glam rock band KISS are more populist than 'high' culture.
That's not to say that they are unworthy. Who could argue that Stallone didn't leave an 'indelible' mark on his art form? That's one of the criteria for selecting nominees. And Kennedy Center honorees have been trending toward the popular arts for decades, under presidents of both parties.
As always, Trump was setting a trap for his political foes.
Any criticism of his choices as too lowbrow or undeserving will only bolster his claims to be a scourge of the establishment and endear him more to supporters who lionize him as the ultimate outsider.
Trump's critics see his takeover of the Kennedy Center and his efforts to destroy progressive values in the arts, the universities and elsewhere as cultural warfare.
He pretty much agrees, proclaiming that he'd scrubbed his list for 'wokesters.' He admitted he'd even considered using his newly seized power over the citadel of American cultural life to honor himself.
No wonder critics — including, no doubt, many liberal Kennedy Center subscribers, given the capital region's progressive lean — perceive a would-be authoritarian who wants to dominate and dictate every aspect of American life.
Presidents don't generally select honorees. You'd think the world's most powerful man would have bigger fish to fry. Most commanders in chief just throw a White House reception and turn up for the show.
But Trump is a ravenous consumer of pop culture and is unusually skilled at leveraging it for political gain. He's the executive producer of his own life and political career. So there was no chance he'd pass up a chance to stage-manage this show — and even plans to host the televised gala himself. He professed to have been press-ganged into it by White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles. She probably didn't have to twist his arm for too long.
More seriously, Trump's Kennedy Center Honors will also represent another important victory for his 'Make America Great Again' movement and his hostile takeover of Washington institutions.
'I would say I was about 98 percent involved,' Trump said, of the selection process. 'No, they all went through me … I turned down plenty. They were too woke. I turned them — I had a couple of wokesters.'
There's an important political dimension to this.
Trump's base voters, and many other conservatives, believe that liberal elites spent decades cementing an ideological takeover of multiple areas of US life — in the arts, the media, academia, and even in sports — and dragged them to the left.
The anger of millions of Americans about this pulsated from Trump's rallies in three consecutive campaigns. Voters gravitated toward a candidate who was mocked for his brassy ways by sophisticated Manhattanites. This is why Hillary Clinton's ill-judged insult of Trump supporters in 2016 as 'deplorables' became a badge of honor and a source of power for the president.
When Trump's critics bemoan what they see as a takeover of top political and cultural institutions, his fans think he's taking those entities back. On conservative media, hosts lash out at movie stars for demeaning Hollywood with progressive views, or socially conscious NFL or NBA stars for 'ruining sports.'
Previously, Kennedy Center honorees were chosen by a nominally bipartisan panel of arts and entertainment industry luminaries. But try convincing a conservative that these judges were free of bias, since they were drawn from the liberal arts milieu that Trump is seeking to destroy by taking over the Kennedy Center.
Trump celebrated his dominance of yet another liberal bastion by admitting he was politicizing it — in another show of his unchecked power. 'I shouldn't make this political because they made the Academy Awards political, and they went down the tubes,' he said.
The president went on, 'So they'll say, 'Trump made it political,' but I think if we make it our kind of political, we'll go up, OK?'
But while Trump aimed for levity, his actions are threatening.
On its own, his takeover of the Kennedy Center would be unusual, even a little bizarre. Taken against the backdrop of everything else he's doing, it's more worrying. He's weaponized the Justice Department against his political enemies, including members of the Obama administration. Trump's federalizing of the Washington, DC, police and deployment of the National Guard on the capital's streets and endless offensives against judges mirror the tactics of authoritarian rulers.
The administration plans to scrub exhibits at the Smithsonian so they don't conflict with Trump's hardline views ahead of America's 250th birthday next year. His attempts to control the curricula of elite universities and his attacks on the media along with his dominance of the Kennedy Center make it feel like he's trying to control what Americans see, learn and even do in their leisure time.
It's easy to believe that Trump chose the honorees himself because they all reflect aspects of his own character and experience.
Stallone plays rough guys like John J. Rambo and Rocky Balboa, who trampled political correctness. It's not hard to see that Trump sees himself in them. 'He's a little bit tough, a little bit different, I will tell you. He's a little, tough guy,' Trump said, noting that Stallone, too, has his star in cement in Hollywood. 'In fact, the only way that's a bigger name on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, they say, is a guy named Donald Trump.'
Strait is a massive recording star known as the 'King of Country' and a titan of rural America whose traditional sound evokes the kind of down-home appeal that Trump seeks to emulate.
Crawford, who starred in the original London and Broadway productions of 'Phantom of the Opera,' shows the president's affinity for musicals. Like Trump, the show was big in New York in the 1980s. And the score, composed by Andrew Lloyd Webber, was considered mass market by trendy elites, while being widely popular among the masses.
Crawford is also famous for another role — PT Barnum, a 19th-century showman, impresario, businessman and ring master whose carnival-barker style foretold Trump's. 'Barnum's' most famous number is 'There's a sucker born ev'ry minute' and sums up the business philosophy of a hero remembered for publicity stunts and hoaxes that blurred truth and reality. Sound familiar?
KISS, a band with a catalogue of platinum albums, is also known for over-the-top stagecraft.
And there's no better anthem for Trump's life of personal, business and political scandals that almost but never quite destroy him than Gaynor's biggest hit: 'I Will Survive.'