When commentators pause to describe presidential candidate Donald Trump, they often mention his background in reality TV. Yet for all the puzzling over his ascendency in the Republican presidential race, little attention has been paid to the playbook of a reality show and how that might influence a man who hosted a series that ran for more than a decade.
It’s ripe for a closer look. The elements of this artificially “real” form of televised drama are actually ubiquitous in Mr. Trump’s campaign.
So here it is: from conflict to “confession rooms,” a run-down of the obvious and not-so-obvious ways Mr. Trump has internalized reality-show conventions and in turn, how they are playing out across the entire presidential campaign landscape as a result. If a presidential race might earn the title, “Survivor: Oval Office,” what Trump is adding is the Hollywood game plan.
“The Trump campaign has used a whole bunch of tricks from reality television to run his campaign and extend control over other people’s campaigns,“ says Robert Thompson, founder of the Bleier Center for Television and Popular Culture at Syracuse University in New York. The reason this has worked so well for Trump, Professor Thompson says, is that “even though it’s not exactly like his TV show and he doesn’t control everything, he is playing by the rules of reality TV, and the people covering him are largely unconsciously playing by the same reality show rules as well.”
Of course, this is just one lens through which to view the Trump campaign. His success also reflects the role that nativist and populist insurgencies play as a periodic force in US politics, and voter hunger for “outsiders” in an era of frustration with Washington elites. But prominent features of Trump's candidacy align perfectly with his chosen television genre. Here are six big ways.
