Trump's Coup Attempt is Ripped Straight from Pro-Wrestling's Playbook

Trump's attempts to overturn his election loss are part wrestling-style grift, part coup attempt

In the late 60s, our family lived with my grandparents for a time. I was in elementary school; the youngest of my three younger brothers was an infant. As if the four of us weren’t enough for their small home, my grandmother’s cousin came to visit during the summer. 

Cousin Ola was a cheerful, gray-haired lady, slightly younger than my grandmother— and she was crazy about wrestling. On Saturdays, she insisted we watch Championship Wrestling, a regional forerunner to Vince MacMahon’s WWE. The ordinarily mild-mannered little lady shouted louder and louder with each match, urging on her favorite wrestler. 

My brothers and I soon realized that Cousin Ola truly believed Championship Wrestling, with its flashy heroes and staged violence, was the real thing. As one of the ‘fights’ came to its predictable crescendo, Cousin Ola cheered so loudly it was as though she was at ringside. As the excitement reached its crescendo, one of my little brothers shouted, “Cousin Ola is going crazy! She thinks it's real!” 

A dark look fell over the little old lady’s face, as if my brother broke the spell. The idea that a mere child would suggest wrestling was fake, and question her sanity, was simply too much.

Before we knew it, Cousin Ola had packed her bags, and was walking out the door, still steaming. I still recall the sight of her leaving grandmother’s house, her blue Samsonite suitcase with the white trim in hand. 

To this day, the story of Cousin Ola, the elderly wrestling superfan, is part of our family’s lore.

Vintage Samsonite Luggage. Photo: Etsy

Trump’s relationship with the wrestling industry goes back decades 

What would you say if I told you this: the thing that played the most significant role in shaping the Trump political persona wasn't The Apprentice, but his decades of involvement in professional wrestling? 

Media critics often refer to him as a ‘carnival barker’ or ‘reality television star.’ But the most accurate way to view Trump’s approach to politics is through the lens of professional wrestling. 

Nearly every aspect of Trump’s norm-busting behavior—his mercurial persona, constant lying, the feuds, name-calling, self-aggrandizement, and even his over-the-top rallies are, at their most basic level, steeped in wrestling-influenced storytelling. Trump presents his alternative reality to his supporters in much the same way that the WWE works a storyline. 

Trump has a years-long connection with World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) and its owner, Vince McMahon. McMahon’s wife (and former WWE CEO), Linda, even served as an original member of Trump’s presidential cabinet. 

In 1988 and 1989, Trump hosted WWE’s annual “Wrestlemania” event at his Atlantic City hotel and casino. Trump’s recurring role in WWE storylines was so consequential that in 2013 he was honored with induction into its Hall of Fame.

What Trump is doing is part coup attempt, part wrestling-style grift

Professional wrestling’s scripted storylines revolve around two basic character archetypes: heroes, i.e., ‘faces’ and villains, or ‘heels.’ Like Trump, wrestling’s rhetorical heel also plays the victim: If they lose a match, then someone rigged the game. There’s always a conspiracy. And what of wrestling’s true believers that think it’s all real? They’re called ‘marks.’ 

The sport relies on what wrestling insiders refer to as kayfabe, wrestling parlance for the presentation of staged events as real or ‘true,’ specifically the portrayal of competition, feuds, rivalries, and relationships between participants genuine and not staged. 

Kayfabe depends on the suspension of disbelief, the abandonment of critical thinking, in much the same way that rabid Trump supporters buy into claims of election fraud, despite mountains of credible evidence to the contrary. What’s happening in the lead-up to Georgia’s January senate run-off election is a perfect example of Trump-induced suspension of disbelief:

In a recent Twitter post, Jared Yates Sexton, author, political commentator, and host of The Muckrake Political Podcast, explains how Trump and his team use professional wrestling techniques in their ‘election fraud’ grift, how the GOP participates, and why it’s all so dangerous:

“[S]omething people need to realize is that we’re watching the rhetorical strategies of professional wrestling play out in politics and our country. Here’s an explanation. Professional wrestling is an industry of grift. It’s about open and closed system of power and knowledge. It is divided between “smarts,” people who understand the grift and “marks,” people who are being manipulated. Right now, this coup is about the same systems. While we’re on [Twitter] talking about Trump’s media moves, his staff looking for other jobs, and Republicans admitting they know Biden won, Trump’s supporters are awash in declarations of stolen elections, fundraising schemes. It’s smarts and marks. What Trump is doing right now is called “a work.” A work means people are involved in a scam together and know they’re playing roles. They even engage in feuds and grudges as a means of bilking people out of their money. Real moments are “shoots.” We’re in a work right now. Trump, Fox, the GOP, all of the grifters who feed off them with podcasts, YouTube shows, they’re bilking people for money in this work. But here’s the thing. Works become shoots in a real hurry as the performers are consumed by their own performances. The marks Trump and the GOP are hitting are getting worked up, meaning they’re more likely to shell out money or even become violent, like fans at a wrestling show lashing out at the bad guys. But if the work grows and catches, sometimes it becomes real and dangerous. Performers “work themselves into a shoot,” meaning they begin by playing roles and then it becomes real. With Trump/GOP continuing to ratchet up the temperature, the marks get more dangerous and the performers themselves can start to believe their own lies.”

Trump’s efforts to cling to power embody the classic wrestling grift. His attempts to overturn the election, his allegations of election fraud without a shred of evidence, fundraising from his base all the while is as much a wrestling-style kayfabe scheme as it is an autocratic coup attempt. 

By knowingly participating in Trump’s charade, expressing faux uncertainty about who won the election, Republicans in Congress are not engaging in smart politics; they are abetting his scam. They are actively condoning his effort, clumsy as it is, to disenfranchise millions of voters. 

With Trump’s looming legal exposure post-presidency, plus the mountain of personally-guaranteed debt coming due once he leaves office, he has plenty of incentive to keep the grift going.

And while it may be a kayfabe to him, millions of Trump’s supporters have bought the act, hook line and sinker. Just as with my Cousin Ola and professional wrestling, they believe Trump’s act is the real thing.

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