Popular social media account Scary Lawyerguy took one look at Donald Trump‘s recent abortion statement video — and the purported blowback from right-wingers — and saw “pro wrestling” stamped on the familiar-looking proceedings.
“It’s pro wrestling, folks,” he writes. “Trump wants people to believe he is a ‘moderate’ on abortion so he and Lindsey pretend to have a fight about it, the media latches on, spinning the story to reinforce Trump’s fake position, and they all laugh about it backstage.”
It’s pro wrestling, folks. Trump wants people to believe he is a “moderate” on abortion so he and Lindsey pretend to have a fight about it, the media latches on, spinning the story to reinforce Trump’s fake position, and they all laugh about it backstage. https://t.co/K4PH0pNfYC
— scary lawyerguy (@scarylawyerguy) April 8, 2024
Scary Lawyerguy calls out the fighting as fake and the animosity as staged, two tried-and-true factors in the success of pro wrestling’s entertainment model. Outlandish characters would be another. [NOTE: Importantly, in the formula, the alleged adversaries are really working together amiably — otherwise someone could get hurt.]
Trump, indeed, has studied the pro wrestling product for years, making appearances at matches, and befriending — and partnering with — erstwhile WWE impresario Vince McMahon, a Trump donor and supporter.
Politics and show business have never been more closely aligned than at the present moment, a hybridization supercharged by social media and widespread communications disintermediation — i.e., the disarming of traditional media’s gatekeepers.
Armed with podcasts (Ted Cruz anyone?) and X accounts, today’s politicians have increasingly become influencers and celebrities with their own developed audiences. Even deep-red MAGA media personalities like Steve Bannon can become disturbed by the results, chiding their own side — Reps. James Comer and Jim Jordan specifically — for being merely “performative” congressmen, rather than substantive lawmakers.
That might seem rich coming from a man who owes the broader part of his fame largely to the 45th President of the United States, who was a TV star on a so-called reality show for more than a decade before he won a seat in the Oval Office, having never held elected office.
Trump’s rally circuit remains a barnstorming sort of traveling medicine show and his campaign spokesman is Steven Cheung, a veteran promoter of entertainment products like the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) and — pertinently — a self-described “pro wrestling historian.”
Politics has always, doubtless, been staged for effect, but the ascendant MAGA populism that Trump taps into and foments is a highly crafted entertainment product. Billionaire Barry Diller, asked recently about Trump’s financially dubious new media company and its NASDAQ listing, said Trump “is only interesting now because he’s out there entertaining the folks.”
Scary Lawyerguy contends that Trump is following a carefully composed script on abortion, hoping not to alienate on-the-fence voters who favor reproductive rights for women. Graham’s pose to his right allows Trump to look moderate by comparison while repeating his claims of moderation and his plans to leave the issue to the states.
Yet there is little doubt among Trump watchers and MAGA adherents that Trump would, given the chance, sign a national abortion ban.
Collins: Is there any doubt in your mind that if he is re-elected and a National Abortion Ban did come across his desk, that he’d sign it?
Healey: Absolutely no doubt. He’s sign that pic.twitter.com/qDo3EPEC0k
— Acyn (@Acyn) April 9, 2024
The wrestling trick is that, for now, Graham and others standing to the right of Trump’s ostensible abortion position (see below) make him look as if he’s relatively hands-off on the issue — at least enough to placate those who keep voting against strict abortion bans in places like Kansas, but otherwise favor the GOP.
22 Republican anti-abortion activists with a combined 14.6 million followers on Twitter made posts ripping Trump’s statement on abortion today. Story highlights…https://t.co/zeAaIMTFVy
— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) April 8, 2024