How top wrestling promoter explains Trump’s stranglehold on US politics: author

11 September 2023

Despite facing four criminal indictments as well as writer E. Jean Carroll's civil defamation lawsuits, Donald Trump remains the clear frontrunner in the 2024 GOP presidential primary.

An I&I/TIPP poll released on September 10 finds Trump leading the second-place candidate, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, by 49 percent. And in a CNN poll that came out on September 5, DeSantis trails Trump by 34 percent.

Popular Information's Judd Legum, in an article published on September 11, argues that wrestling promotor Vince McMahon offers insights on Trump's hold on U.S. politics. The publication interviewed Abraham Josephine Riesman, author of the book "Ringmaster: Vince McMahon and the Unmaking of America."

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Riesman told Popular Information, "What we have with Trump is a guy who a lot of people on the left misunderstand as being just loved by the people who vote for him…. Very often, people will approach Trump in the way that they approach what they call in wrestling a 'tweener.' Somebody who's not exactly good or not exactly evil, where they go, 'Yeah, I don't approve of all of his methods or the things he says, but he's cool, and he gets the job done.'"

Riesman noted that in wrestling, a "face" is considered "a bad guy," while a "heel" is a "bad guy." Thinking of Trump as either a "face" or a "heel," according to Riesman, is "too binary."

Reisman told Popular Information, "You can't deny that Millennial boys grew up watching (wrestler) Stone Cold Steve Austin, and then The Rock and Triple H, and all these other people in that mold. These are people who are not quite face, not quite heel, but beloved by the crowd, despite their evil acts. Millennial boys shaped their whole worldviews when they're 11 to 15 around that sense of morality. Not: Is it good, or is it evil? Just: Is it exciting? Is it cool?"

The author added that Trump, like McMahon, is "very good at pressing buttons."

Reisman explained, "They're very good at finding the parts of your brain that make you the most riled up and just mashing that button, just making you as amped up, or angry, or both, as you can be. He throws out these transgressive pieces of red meat. And if you're on his team, that's very exciting for you; if you're not on his team, it's also very exciting for you, but in a negative way. The point is: You're excited, and you're paying attention to him."

Read Popular Information's full interview with Abraham Josephine Riesman at this link.

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