It's Been 10 Years Since Trump's Gold-Gilded Escalator Ride
Trump used demagoguery to con the nation into believing that he's a truth-teller
It’s been 10 years since Trump announced he was planning to run for president. Ten long, traumatic years. He made his presidential announcement at Trump Tower, where he lived at the time. For me, the biggest tell from the whole spectacle was when I learned that Donald Trump was a man who lived on the “sixty-eighth” floor of a building that actually only has fifty-eight-floors.
His speech was mocked quite a bit. But some people who listened to that speech ten years ago decided that they liked what they heard and wanted Trump to be president. Since it was the beginning of the story of the 2016 presidential campaign, I used it as the opening of my book Demagogue for President: The Rhetorical Genius of Donald Trump. There’s a lot going on in that opening moment, so here is “The Announcement Spectacle” from my book.
The Announcement Spectacle
An hour before he was scheduled to announce his presidential campaign, members of Donald Trump’s staff stood outside Trump Tower in New York City, inviting tourists to “come inside and make some memories.”1 Once inside the building’s gleaming orange-and-pink marble and gold interior, staffers handed the tourists “Make America Great Again” T-shirts and signs reading “We Want Trump” and “Trump for Our Future,” instructing them to stand near the Tower’s famous escalators. The tourists joined hundreds of others—many were paid actors—also wearing staff-provided shirts and carrying signs.2 The casting call had asked for actors willing to “help cheer him in support of his announcement,” and so the tourists and the actors played their role. After his daughter Ivanka introduced him as “the opposite of politically correct,” the tourists and actors could be seen enthusiastically waving their signs as Neil Young’s “Rockin’ in the Free World” blared out loudly from a sound system. Donald Trump and his wife Melania slowly descended from the upper reaches of the fifty-eight-story Trump Tower toward the stage below.3 This was “some group of people, thousands,” Trump enthused as he arrived at the podium to announce his plan to run for president and make America great again.4 “It’s great to be at Trump Tower,” he said. “It’s great to be in a wonderful city, New York. And it’s an honor to have everybody here. This is beyond anybody’s expectations. There’s been no crowd like this.”5
While members of the media gave credibility to Trump’s presidential announcement event by reporting on it in large numbers, they did not report that they found Trump to be a credible candidate. “Donald J. Trump, the garrulous real estate developer whose name has adorned apartment buildings, hotels, Trump-brand neckties and Trump-brand steaks,” Alexander Burns wrote drolly in the New York Times, “announced on Tuesday his entry into the 2016 presidential race, brandishing his wealth and fame as chief qualifications in an improbable quest for the Republican nomination.”6 Like the Times, most news reports of the event could barely contain their amused derision at “Trump’s funhouse-mirror presidential campaign announcement.”7 Some news organizations did not even try. The conservative National Review described Trump’s event as a “witless ape [riding an] escalator.”8 Salon announced, “The puckered sleazebag takes the plunge—America’s least respected reality TV star declares his 2016 intentions and makes life hell for the GOP.”9 Rolling Stone offered a bit more nuance when it explained that “Trump is widely considered to be an unserious candidate, a man who—despite an incredible amount of resources—is unlikely to secure the GOP nomination, and who is more interested in garnering attention.”10 The Daily Beast offered what turned out to be the most prescient take on Trump’s campaign when it punned that it was “the best new reality TV show this season.”11
While media reports derided the Trump presidential announcement spectacle, his speech specifically was ridiculed as “unending, utterly baffling, often-wrong” and a “rambling, hour-long stream-of-consciousness” that “strongly resembled performance art.” Most news reports highlighted the controversial moments from Trump’s speech, finding evidence that he was an arrogant, absurd, and racist charlatan, and arguing that the errors in judgment found in the content of the speech demonstrated that Trump was unelectable.12 Reporters thought that Trump sounded hyperbolically arrogant when he said things like “I’m really rich” and “I will be the greatest jobs president that God ever created.” Reporters thought that Trump sounded absurd when he said things like “[y]ou have to be hit by a tractor, literally, a tractor, to use [Obamacare], because the deductibles are so high; it’s virtually useless.” Reporters thought that Trump sounded racist when he said things like “when Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best. . . .They’re sending people that have lots of problems and they’re bringing those problems with us. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists.” And, finally, reporters thought that he sounded like a charlatan when he said, “I would build a great wall—nobody builds walls better than me. . . . And I would have Mexico paying for that wall.”13 And yet, despite all of the media disbelief that his “ludicrous” announcement meant that he would really launch an actual presidential campaign, Trump’s spokesperson Hope Hicks sent out a press release claiming that indeed “today, Donald J. Trump announced his candidacy for President of the United States of America.”14
Trump’s speech drew more attention on social media than any other Republican in the crowded primary field: many social media users joined in the chorus of derision found in traditional media outlets, but many others embraced Trump’s campaign slogan, hoping that he could indeed make America great again. Several news stories reported that Trump’s announcement prompted Twitter to have “the best day ever” and included roundups of celebrities, political pundits, and regular folks having a good time at Trump’s expense: “If Donald wins the presidency he’ll host another season of celebrity apprentice to fill his cabinet,” quipped Hillsdale College student Thomas Novelly.15 “Donald Trump sounds like America’s drunk conservative uncle,” observed Abby Johnston of the Texas Monthly.16 Former Obama senior advisor Dan Pfieffer thought that “[t]he Trump candidacy is a Veep storyline that would have been discarded for being too absurd even for an HBO comedy.”17 And so on.18
But not all was fun and mocking on Twitter: Fox News took Trump’s campaign more seriously than most, posting “Trump Delivers a Message Republicans Need,” which included a video of news anchor Greta Van Susteren describing Trump’s speech as “dazzling” and inviting viewers to tweet their responses to Trump’s announcement to her.19 In response, Saltwater Patricia said, “I love it. We need someone like him who’s not afraid to tell it like it is” and included Trump’s campaign slogan as a hashtag: “#MakeAmericaGreatAgain.”20 Another Fox viewer replied, “If anyone can Make America Great Again he can! If given the chance he will do great things for our country!” 21 Also using Trump’s campaign slogan hashtag was Peter Enimil, who wrote that he supported Trump because he thought that he was a successful businessman: “Being a President is like owning a business. You need a way better CEO and who is better than Donald Trump? Let’s Make America Great Again.”22 Proud Boy Nick thought that Trump alone could break the national gridlock: “Donald Trump WILL succeed where government has failed. This may be our ONLY opportunity to break through bureaucracy & get work done!” He also decried the media’s treatment of Trump’s announcement, fearing that “the media is not taking TRUMP seriously, they are all there talking about him & HE IS RIGHT!”23 Sarah Carlson, like others, applauded Trump for being so honest and expressive, exclaiming that she loved “how Donald Trump speaks his mind regardless!”24
Facebook reported that 3.4 million users shared information about Trump 6.4 million times in the 24 hours after he announced his campaign; by comparison, that’s nearly eight times more interest than Facebook reported for Florida Governor Jeb Bush after his announcement just the day before—users posted 849,000 messages about Bush. According to Google, Trump was the most searched for Republican in every state the day of his announcement, and his “search interest”—the percentage of national queries for the hour after he announced—was 87 percent.25 We can say therefore at least that Trump’s announcement was successful in gaining him attention, if not universal respect, as a presidential candidate. And beyond this, we can say that Trump’s message of making America great again by protecting the nation’s borders, rejecting political correctness, and fighting corruption resonated with some Americans on the day of his announcement. Eventually that message would win him the presidency, so why was it so difficult for political pundits and reporters to take Trump’s presidential campaign seriously on the day of his announcement?
Well, for one reason, he didn’t sound presidential. He didn’t sound like a typical presidential candidate and so political observers rejected his campaign as absurd. But perhaps the pundits simply did not understand Trump’s rhetorical strategy, which makes much more sense in retrospect. Trump’s unpresidential speech was designed to appeal to the distrusting, polarized, and frustrated Americans who desired a change in leadership. Like 2008, 2016 was a “change election” year, and according to political science “fundamentals,” any Republican should have defeated any Democrat in 2016.26 But of all the GOP hopefuls who ran, why did Republicans choose Trump? As much as Barack Obama had looked different from every previous president in 2008, Donald Trump sounded different from every previous president in 2016. For Trump’s supporters, his aggressive and politically incorrect rhetoric toward the establishment was his best argument for why he should be president. His absurd rhetoric was appropriately targeted to audiences who thought that American politics was itself absurd.
One take on Trump’s announcement event wondered if Trump might be “America’s most gifted political satirist,” more akin to an entertainer like Stephen Colbert than, say, a politician like Obama. Elspeth Reeve wrote in The New Republic that as a satirist, “Trump’s greatest genius is offering the same political analysis we hear on sober Sunday talk shows, delivered in the language of a vulgar oaf.”27 To be sure, Trump claimed to be a genius and he used vulgar language. That vulgar language would have disqualified anyone else from the presidency in a typical election year, but 2016 was not a typical election and Donald Trump was not a typical candidate. It was difficult to understand at the moment in June 2015 that his vulgarity was his appeal because it enabled him to appear as an authentic truth teller—what the ancient Greeks might have called a parrhesiastes, “the one who speaks the truth”—which corroborated his claims of being able to put an end to widespread corruption in government if elected.28 Ironically, when the establishment media mocked Trump, it only proved the validity of his outsider status—a tricky status to acquire for someone who claimed to be a billionaire real-estate mogul member of the ultra-elite.
Endnotes (the book has 100 pages of endnotes, here are the notes for this section)
1. Ben Terris, “Donald Trump Begins 2016 Bid, Citing His Outsider Status,” Washington Post, June 16, 2015, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/donald-trump-is-now-a-candidate-for-president-of-the-united-states/2015/06/16/5e6d738e-1441-11e5-9ddc-e3353542100c_story.htmlpostshare=3651434500633671&utm_term=.feb1132f8954.
2. Angelo Carusone, “Donald Trump Hired Paid Actors to Attend Presidential Launch Event,” Medium, June 16, 2015, https://medium.com/@GoAngelo/donald-trump-hired- paid-actors-to-attend-presidential-launch-event-7c65e8fadea0#.nzz3nj2f4; Aaron Couch and Emmet McDermott, “Donald Trump Campaign Offered Actors $50 to Cheer for Him at Presidential Announcement,” The Hollywood Reporter, June 17, 2015, http://www.holly-woodreporter.com/news/donald-trump-campaign-offered-actors-803161; Kieran Corcoran, “Donald Trump Accused of Hiring Actors for $50 Each to Pose as Supporters at Trump Towers Presidential Campaign Launch,” Daily Mail, June 17, 2015, http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3128230/Did-Donald-Trump-hire-paid-actors-presidential-campaign-launch-Claims-professionals-extras-brought-pose-supporters.html#ixzz4KSIsBEwc; Rachel Maddow, “GOP’s Trump Problem a Monster of Their Own Creation,” MSNBC, June 17, 2015, http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow/watch/donald-trump-a-problem-of-gops-own- making-467035203551. According to a Trump campaign press release, “Mr. Trump was joined by his immediate family and stood before thousands of supporters to declare his candidacy for the 2016 GOP Presidential nomination.” “Donald J. Trump Declares Candidacy for President of the United States,” June 16, 2015, https://www.donaldjtrump.com/press- releases/donald-j.-trump-declares-candidacy-for-president-of-the-united-states. In addition, Trump political adviser Sam Nunberg indicated, “We could have had women in bikinis, elephants and clowns there, for all I care. . . . It would have been the most gloriously disgusting event you’ve ever seen, as a way to, like, be a complete ‘fuck you’ to the system.” Michael Kruse, “The Escalator Ride That Changed America,” Politico, June 14, 2019, https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2019/06/14/donald-trump-campaign-announcement-tower-escalator-oral-history-227148.
3. “Donald Trump Presidential Announcement Full Speech,” YouTube video, 51:14, filmed on June 16, 2015, Posted by Donald J. Trump for President, https://www.youtube. com/watch?v=q_q61B-DyPk; Tobias Salinger, “Rock Legend Neil Young Slams Donald Trump’s Use of ‘Rockin’ in the Free World’ for Campaign Announcement,” New York Daily News, June 17, 2015, http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/music/neil-young-slams-donald-trump-song-campaign-article-1.2260711; Lilly Maier, “We Visited Trump Tower, and It Perfectly Epitomizes Its Eccentric, Contradictory Owner,” Quartz, March 24, 2016, http://qz.com/646029/we-visited-trump-tower-Perfectly-epitomizes-its-eccentric-contradictory-owner/. Donald Trump is a man who lives on the sixty-eighth floor of a fifty-eight-floor building. The New York Times reports that there are actually fifty-eight floors, but Trump requested that the floor numbers be augmented so that the building would appear to have more floors than the GM Building. Vivian Yee, “Donald Trump’s Math Takes His Towers to Greater Heights,” New York Times, November 1, 2016, http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/02/nyregion/donald-trump-tower-heights.html?_r=0; Ivanka Trump (@ IvankaTrump), “I was honored to introduce my father today as he made a major announcement: http://bit.ly/1LfjFBY #MakeAmericaGreatAgain @realDonaldTrump,” Twitter, June 16, 2015, https://twitter.com/IvankaTrump/status/610958193016094720.
4. Hunter Walker, “Donald Trump Got Only 8 Words into His Campaign before We Found a Seriously Questionable Fact,” Business Insider, June 16, 2015, http://www.busines-sinsider.com/problem-with-the-first-8-words-of-donald-trumps-speech-2015-6.
5. Donald J. Trump, “Donald Trump Presidential Campaign Announcement,” C-SPAN, recorded June 16, 2015, https://www.c-span.org/video/?326473-1/donald-trump-presiden- tial-campaign-announcement. There is much discrepancy between Trump’s estimate of the crowd and reporter estimates. Reporter Hunter Walker estimated three hundred, while Trump’s campaign estimated between one thousand and three thousand people. Walker, “Donald Trump Got Only 8 Words into His Campaign before We Found a Seriously Questionable Fact.”
6. Alexander Burns, “Donald Trump, Pushing Someone Rich, Offers Himself,” New York Times, June 15, 2016, http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/17/us/politics/donald-trump-runs-for-president-this-time-for-real-he-says.html?_r=0.
7. Phillip Bump, “Donald Trump’s Spectacular, Unending, Utterly Baffling, Often- Wrong Campaign Launch,” Washington Post, June 16, 2015, https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2015/06/16/donald-trumps-spectacular-unending-utterly-baffling-often-wrong-campaign-announcement/?utm_term=.6fd8b8097ba1.
8. “Donald Trump may be the man America needs. Having been through four bankruptcies, the ridiculous buffoon with the ridiculous buffoon with the worst taste since Caligula is uniquely positioned to lead the most indebted organization in the history of the human race.” Kevin D. Williamson, “Witless Ape Rides Escalator,” National Review, June 16, 2015, http://www.nationalreview.com/article/419853/witless-ape-rides-escalator-kevin-d-williamson; Christopher Buckley, “What Would William F. Buckley Have Made of Donald Trump?” Vanity Fair, December 5, 2016, http://www.vanityfair.com/news/2016/12/what-would-william-f-buckley-have-made- of-donald-trump.
9. Simon Maloy, “The Puckered Sleazebag Takes the Plunge: Donald Trump Is (Not Officially) Running for President,” Salon, June 16, 2015, http://www.salon.com/2015/06/16/the_puckered_sleazebag_takes_the_plunge_donald_trump_is_not_officially_running_for_ president/.
10. “8 of the Sleaziest Things Donald Trump Has Said,” Rolling Stone, June 16, 2015, http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/8-of-the-sleaziest-things-donald-trump-hassaid-20150616
11. Phillip Bump, “Donald Trump’s Spectacular, Unending, Utterly Baffling, Often- Wrong Campaign Launch,” Washington Post, June 16, 2015, https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2015/06/16/donald-trumps-spectacular-unending-utterly-baffling-often-wrong-campaign-announcement/?utm_term=.6fd8b8097ba1; Olivia Nuzzi, “Trump to U.S.: ‘I Am Rich,’ Hire Me,” Daily Beast, June 16, 2015, http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/06/16/trump-to-run-for-president-of-not-china-broken-dreamless-nation.html.
12. Annie Karni and Adam B. Lerner, “Trump Says He’s Running for President, Really,” Politico, June 16, 2015, http://www.politico.com/story/2015/06/donald-trump-2016-pres- idential-run-224432; Igor Bobic, “Donald Trump Is Actually Running for President. God Help Us All,” Huffington Post, June 16, 2015, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/06/16/ donald-trump-president_n_7595438.html.
13. 13. Tom McKay, “15 Head-Scratching Quotes from Donald Trump’s Presidential Announcement Speech,” Mic, June 16, 2015, https://mic.com/articles/120785/best-quotesfrom-donald-trumps-2016-presidential-announcement-speech#.4Ukn1Nojd; Craig McCarthy, “11 Controversial Things Donald Trump Said During His Presidential Announcement,” NJ.com, June 16, 2015, http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2015/06/11_interesting_things_donald_trump_said_during_his_presidential_announcement.html; Jessica Mendoza, “The Best Lines from Donald Trump’s Unusual Presidential Announcement,” Christian Science Monitor, June 16, 2015, http://www.csmonitor.com/usa/usa-update/2015/0616/the-bestlines-from-donald-trump-s-unusual-presidential-announcement-video; Adam B. Lerner, “The 10 Best Lines from Donald Trump’s Announcement Speech,” Politico, June 16, 2015, http://www.politico.com/story/2015/06/donald-trump-2016-announcement-10-bestlines-119066; Paula Mejia, “A Roundup of Everyone Donald Trump Upset in His Announcement Speech,” Newsweek, June 17, 2015, http://www.newsweek.com/round-everyone-donald-trump-upset-his-announcement-speech-344032.
14. Hope Hicks, “Donald J. Trump Declares Candidacy for President of the United States,” June 16, 2015, https://www.donaldjtrump.com/press-releases/donald-j.-trumpdeclares-candidacy-for-president-of-the-united-states.
15. Thomas Novelly (@TomNovelly), “If Donald wins the presidency he’ll host another season of celebrity apprentice to fill his cabinet,” Twitter, June 16, 2015, https://twitter.com/TomNovelly/status/610830203561099264?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw.
16. Abby Johnston (@ajohnston12), “Donald Trump sounds like America’s drunk conservative uncle. #Trump2016,” Twitter, June 16, 2015, https://twitter.com/ajohnston12/status/610827080041783296?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw.
17. Dan Pfeiffer (@danpfeiffer), “The Trump candidacy is a Veep storyline that would have been discarded for being too absurd even for an HBO comedy,” Twitter, June 16, 2015, https://twitter.com/danpfeiffer/status/610827202842660865?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw.
18. Albert Brooks (@AlbertBrooks), “Donald Trump announces this morning that he will run for president. His hair will announce on Friday,” Twitter, June 16, 2015, https://twitter.com/AlbertBrooks/status/610834177223626752?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw; Dub (@WMsDiary), “if you’re old, white, and lost all concept of reality, there isn’t a better time to run for the Republican Presidential nomination,” Twitter, June 16, 2015, https://twitter.com/WMsDiary/status/610837020353691649?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw; Eliot Nelson, “Drunk Guy Next To You At Bar Launches Presidential Campaign,” Twitter, June 16, 2015, https://twitter.com/eliotnelson/status/610833080631316481?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
19. Fox Nation (@foxnation), “Editorial: Trump Delivers a Message Republicans Need bit.ly/1J4jtlp #DonaldTrump #Trump2016,” Twitter, June 17, 2015, https://twitter.com/ foxnation/status/611154696321896448; New York Post Editorial Board, “Editorial: Trump Delivers a Message Republicans Need,” Fox Nation, June 17, 2015, http://nation.foxnews.com/2015/06/17/editorial-trump-delivers-message-republicans-need.
20. Saltwater Patricia (@muzikgirl11), “I love it. We need someone like him who’s not afraid to tell it like it is #MakeAmericaGreatAgain,” Twitter, June 16, 2015, https://twitter.com/muzikgirl11/status/610955066787233792.
21. Dawn Carrubba (@DawnCarrubba), “@greta @realDonaldTrump #greta If anyone can #MakeAmericaGreatAgain he can! If given the chance he will do great things for our country!” Twitter, June 16, 2015, https://twitter.com/DawnCarrubba/status/610948460603404288.
22. Peter Enimil (@peter_enimil), “Being a President is like owning a business. You need a way better CEO and who is better than @realDonaldTrump? Lets #MakeAmericaGreatAgain,” Twitter, June 16, 2015, https://twitter.com/peter_enimil/status/610953371953045505; Peter Enimil (@peter_enimil), “@realDonaldTrump I will tweet #MAGA #MakeAmericaGreatAgain #DonaldTrump4Prez #Jobs4All #GoodlifeUSA everyday until even after the elections,” Twitter, June 16, 2015, https://twitter.com/peter_enimil/status/610951277024014337. In this tweet, Enimil promised to continue to tweet supportive Trump hashtags until “even after the elections.” (He didn’t.) I asked him why he didn’t make good on his promise, and he responded, “Honestly, I could not because I actually left my twitter account unused. Left if for someone to handle it for an event,” Twitter, December 12, 2016, https://twitter.com/peter_enimil/status/808391893314928642.
23. Now deleted and unarchived: Proud Boy Nick, https://twitter.com/ProudBoyNick/status/610945602118098944.
24. Now deleted and unarchived: Sarah Carlson, https://twitter.com/sarcarlso/status/
610939902595764224.
25. These reports of search interest and comments may very well be inflated by “bots” computer programs that mimic actual people on social media—and by strategic attempts to game the search interest algorithm. Geoff Earle, “Trump Is Crushing the Social (Media) Scene,” New York Post, June 17, 2015, http://nypost.com/2015/06/17/trump-is-crushing-thesocial-media-scene/. Hope Hicks, “Trump Smashes Social Records Following Presidential Announcement,” Democracy in Action, June 17, 2015, http://www.p2016.org/trump/trump061615sp.html.
26. I’m indebted to my political science colleague Joe Ura for this take on the funda- mentals: Daniel W. Drezner, “Why Political Science Is Not an Election Casualty,” Washington Post, November 15, 2016, https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2016/11/15/why-political-science-is-not-an-election-casualty/?utm_term=.4d55401685e9.
27. Elspeth Reeve, “Donald Trump Is America’s Most Gifted Satirist,” The New Republic, June 16, 2015, https://newrepublic.com/article/122047/donald-trump-americas- most-gifted-political-satirist.
28. Michel Foucault, Fearless Speech (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2001).