Oftentimes when people think about politics at its most basic form it may be viewed as a popularity contest, where each candidate sets out to gain the most votes in order to win. I understand that the American Presidency doesn’t work this way due to the Electoral college, however all other races do. When candidates run for office, they hope to become the most popular by sharing their ideas, policies, goals, etc. in order to connect with and ultimately help the most people. These ideas, debates and policy discussions should be the determining factor of who is the most popular. When these honest debates become sidelined and candidates shift their focus to getting the most attention and being the most entertaining to the people, politics starts to look and feel very different and becomes more theatrical, almost like a professional wrestling event.

Professional wrestling is a form of entertainment that offers daily or weekly storylines. In this current administration, it appears that they are trying to communicate to the American people in the same way that professional wrestling does. In professional wrestling, the storyline is set up by having a heel which is a bad guy and the baby face which is a good guy. If you are a heel, you want the fans to boo you and pay their money to see you get beat up and lose the match. If you are the baby face, the fans want you to win so they can all go home happy. To his base, President Trump is the baby face and to his opponents and critics President Trump is the heel.

The president learned all of this directly from the former head of World Wrestling Entertainment Vince McMahon. Wrestlemania four and five were hosted at Trump casinos in New Jersey. Then he was interviewed at Wrestlemania twenty by WWE and then most importantly he was in a storyline called the battle of the billionaires against Vince McMahon. To show their appreciation and the President’s ability to connect with a WWE audience he was inducted to the WWE hall of fame in 2013 in the celebrity wing. Then during both of President Trump’s administrations Linda McMahon has been a cabinet secretary. Think about how Sports Entertainment works and the skill set needed to succeed in that business.

Next time President Trump speaks to the media, close your eyes and just listen. Now, picture a wrestling arena with a crowd full of fans excitedly waiting in their seats to see their favorite wrestler make their grand entrance into the ring. Now imagine that this wrestler is President Trump walking down the aisle in his blue suit and long red tie toward the ring with his entrance music playing in the background. Once he arrives in the middle of the wrestling ring, he begins his theatrical promo where he stands tall and talks about how he plans to raise tariffs, calls the democrats names and says how bad they are, stokes fear in people by saying all immigrants are criminals, and so on. When listening to President Trump, keep in mind that his tactics are like a wrestling style promo meant to entertain and threaten but most importantly to keep you tuned in for the next episode.

This wrestling style promo is then followed by the storylines. In this current administration, everything is a storyline that dominates a media cycle. Like wrestling, some of Trump’s storylines start with the world title such as tariffs, ICE raids and use of military force in American cities. Next the mid-title storylines would be taking over the Federal Reserve Bank, foreign wars such as Ukraine, Gaza and combining the war on terror and the war on drugs.

Lastly, the lower level title storylines are clawing money back from congress that was already appropriated and President Trump’s lack of interest in congressional legislation. Moreover, there are storylines that are forgotten, old news, out of the headlines, no longer in the ring such as DOGE. These may be out of the current news cycle but will eventually resurface when those policies actually begin to impact people’s lives. The final storyline or Wrestlemania main event is the Epstein files. No matter where the administration looks, the Epstein files will follow. Imagine all the wrestling fans who have consistently attended wrestling events or watched on television to see their favorite wrestler in action and listen to the ongoing storylines week after week leading up to the main event being told that the event is cancelled. Now you have a room full of angry and disappointed fans who are waiting for the Wrestlemania event they have been promised. Remember any time you think of the President and his base, think of a professional wrestler who holds the crowd of fans in the palm of their hands ready to listen to anything they say and do because the wrestler has the crowd’s undivided attention.

A government for the people and by the people should not be made into a form of entertainment such as professional wrestling. To uphold our democracy, we need more than just to be entertained. We need thoughtful discussions/debates even amongst those who disagree, empathy and the ability to come together for the betterment of our neighbors, communities and the entire country.