“I have mastered the art of business and turned the Trump name into a brand of the highest quality. As a teacher, I want to pass on my knowledge to someone else. I am looking for the apprentice.”
It didn’t happen that long ago, but it seems very far away: in 2004 This is how the American tycoon presented himself to his country.
That was the start of his program “The Apprentice”a reality show where the participants—mostly Latinos and African Americans—competed to achieve an important contract with their company. That show, which had fifteen seasonsopened the door to an audience that was unaware of him, even worldwide, and gradually turned his face into one of the television fauna. But in 2010Trump added a new spice to his media fame, in what would be the formal beginning of his political career: during the Obama administration he was the main promoter of the conspiracy theory which pointed out that the then president had not been born in his nation, a pioneer fake news which became a boom in the United States.
“I’m a little skeptical about Obama’s birth; no one remembers him where he says he was born”repeated the magnate and television host. In 2016Trump admitted that he knew his predecessor was as American as he was, but that no longer mattered: by then he already occupied the Oval Room of the White Housea path he paved by mixing the show with provocations or, directly, lies.
A decade after the beginning of his first presidency, the situation it only deepened. The kidnapping of the dictator Nicolas Maduro was broadcast in real time on television and social networks, in a studied choreography that made the entire scene seem like part of the latest mega-production of hollywood. To this was later added a virtual campaign in which the president was presented as a kind of owner of the entire continent, including—above all— Greenland.
He local spin-off Trump is not far behind. Javier Mileianother figure born on a TV set, mixes his presidency with massive recitals, fiery romances and a permanent memetic culture on social networks. All over the planet it is time for politics comic showa game that, at the same time, is much more than that.
Construction
“I’m Javier Milei. I won’t be famous as an economist, but I will be famous as a rockstar.” Those were the libertarian’s first words on television, the April 28, 2015at 23.32in the historic program of Mariano Grondona. Although many things happened from that moment until his arrival at the Casa Rosada, it is impossible to separate the political phenomenon of the media phenomenon.
Milei built his rise to power from television panels. There he mixed violent screamswild fights and an original contribution: the ability to discuss economic authors in prime time from an extreme libertarian matrix. His figure was also nourished by other condiments: plays during the summers, media courtships—in 2018 he came out with Daniela Moriformer member of the cumbia band The Premiums—, disturbing revelations about his tantric sexuality, covers of rock and classic songs, appearances dressed as a superhero and, of course, his trademark: his strange hair. Saving the distance, he followed Donald Trump’s golden rule to the letter: “Never be boring”.
Milei’s political construction followed that same logic. In 2014he 5 Star Movement —the Italian space that La Libertad Avanza literally copied as a model and that not coincidentally had Beppe Grilloan actor, as a visible face—developed a conduct manual for his elected representatives: “On television it is useless to explain an argument, explain treaties or propose realistic solutions. People are prisoners of their emotions. We are an escape route from anger and fear.” That is the place that Milei came to occupy in local politics. As president, it’s clear, he took it to another level.
While on one hand stir up violence with permanent invitations to “hate more” and compares his rivals to monkeys or cockroaches, on the other hand he offers circus: the recital at the Movistar Arena, his show at the Jesús María festival, an appearance on an official streaming channel with his cloned dog, a fiery kiss with his then partner in a coastal theater, paintings in the Quinta de Olivos where he compares himself with Wolverine and a lion, a bizarre story in English presented through a comic where he appears flying over Buenos Aires as a superhero. Added to this list is his lack of concern for hygiene and changing clothes – with the YPF romper as an emblem, even in Davos—and his inconsolable crying in the Wailing Wallan unpublished postcard for an Argentine president.
With nuances, all of these episodes—the extravagant and the violent—share something in common: draw popular attentionthey dominate social networks and colonize the media and political agenda, while pushing the limits of what can be said in Argentine society. “The first strategy of this right is to polarize society”explains the historian Steven Forti in Far right 2.0. “It is not about eccentricities, but about a well-thought-out strategy.”
That manual appears to have been adopted by the libertarian administration since it came to power. When it was not the closing of the INADI or of Telamwas an attack on the homosexual community, on journalism or on a musical artist. And when there was no political scandal, there was an aesthetic one: four jackets in the middle of summer, attempts to hide the double chin or public defenses of movies from Guillermo Francella. In one way or another, it always caused anger, perplexity or fascinationideal emotions for algorithms that reward noise.
explains it Giuliano da Empoli in The Chaos Engineerspresidential advisor’s bedside book Santiago Caputo:
“Trump’s megaphone was media outrage.” The same thing happens with Trump and Milei: You can love or hate them, but not ignore them.. Almost like a television show. Or as I would say Gianroberto Casaleggio: “The old partyocracy is Blockbuster; we are Netflix.”
Game? Richard Nixon I called him “the madman theory”. Feign irrationality to become unpredictable and, for that reason, fearsome. Trump put it bluntly: “Xi Jinping knows that I am totally crazy.” The question is inevitable: are we facing overwhelmed leaders or carefully constructed characters?
Even if it were an imposture—something doubtful in Milei’s case—the effect is real. “The banality of madness”the political scientist calls it Brian Klaas: a saturation of outbursts that ends up anesthetizing society. And yet, these leaderships set the pulse of the global agenda. not only that is discussed, but as.
The disturbing thing is that this model does not generate massive rejection. It fits with the historical moment. How to write Rodrigo Nunes in Bolsonarism and global extreme right: “These fantasies offer a reasonable response to the madness we are building.”
The show, everything indicates, it’s not going to stop. On the contrary.
The show is just beginning.
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