President Trump

Celebrity-in-Chief and the Desecration of Political Authority

Bibliographic Data

ID5675346
AuthorsAnita Biressi (0000-0003-4997-532X)
Year2020
Volume11
Issue1
Pages125-139
Publication date2020-01-02
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueCelebrity Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1939-2397 • E-ISSN: 1939-2400
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/19392397.2020.1704391
OpenAlexW3008052733
LanguageEN
Citations received8
References cited28

This article argues that Donald Trump’s persona and his dismissal of established conventions work to position him as a celebrity-in-chief who desecrates politics, political authority and the political scene. To pursue this, I draw on sociological and philosophical analyses of political authority developed by sociologists (including Lowenthal, Sennett and Arendt) alongside later work on political persona, celebrity and political appeal. I explore historical changes in the social function and appeal of role models and celebrity and reflect on how these changes have contributed towards a decline in political authority. The final section focuses on Trump’s early days in power to illustrate how he is represented and read as a rogue celebrity politician who has desecrated political authority. This is achieved through a critical engagement with Michael Wolff’s 2018 fly-on-the-wall account of life inside Team Trump entitled Fire and Fury: Inside the White House

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