Donald Trump is a figure out of commedia dell’arte—a puffed-up clown who thinks he’s brilliant but is, in fact, an ignorant fool. His televised commentaries with the Coronavirus Task Force could have been uttered word-for-word by Il Dottore, the ridiculous “expert” who is rolled out in the middle of the Italian comedy to spew a moronic stream of nonsense in the most officious voice. Bleach, anyone?

Trump is the first reality television president—and hopefully the last. Much more than any role as a self-proclaimed “brilliant businessman,” he owes the improbable win of 2016 to his ubiquitous presence on broadcast television for 12 years on The Apprentice. His election represents the triumph of trash culture over any semblance of high culture in America.

Trash television (also known as reality TV) shows off the worst impulses of human nature. While at times amusing, it is nothing more than a repetitive display of staged nonsense, such as Trump taking pleasure in firing some hapless would-be apprentice at the end of each episode.

Trash television creates manufactured conflicts between “rivals.” Take The Real Housewives of—Beverly Hills, Atlanta, New York—it’s all the same show. Most of the characters may be non-actors, but the conflicts are scripted. The catfights are petty and unremarkable. The reality shows always focus on the worst in people—their cravenness, pettiness and jealousy. The virtuous need not apply. Everything is cutthroat. All the pretty young things are cheating on each other and cheating pays off. Bullying is a virtue and honesty is the worst policy.

A banner on Trump Tower advertising the NBC series The Apprentice. Taken by PhotosByDavid on Flickr.

Is it any wonder that Trump thrived in the reality TV environment? Trump, who lacks any of the virtues, was perfect for his role as the ultimate Scrooge who wouldn’t hesitate to fire an employee on Christmas Eve. The Apprentice was a façade anyway. The Trump Organization was far from the successful business it pretended to be—its properties racked up six bankruptcies. Numerous fraudulent activities of the Trump businesses have been exposed—from the misrepresentations used to hoodwink prospective condo buyers to the false claims of building ownership when, in reality, the Trumps only licensed their name to the developers of most of the towers.

As evidence of his disdain for high culture, Trump neglected his legal duty to award the National Medal of Arts for the first two years of his presidency and finally gave them out in November, 2019—but only after brushing aside the choices of the President’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities . Instead, he threw the awards to his pals such as actor Jon Voight (while a fine actor, also an extreme right-wing Trump acolyte) and to prolific mass-market mystery writer James Patterson—decidedly no lion of literary fiction.

The rise of such a charlatan to the most important public office in America has debased democracy here and around the world. Consistent with his career in reality television, Trump has created daily Twitter diversions focusing on petty controversies and outrageous claims to divert attention from his efforts to destroy the free press, environmental regulations, immigrants’ rights, the movement for racial justice, public health care, judicial independence, and undermine democracy itself. In November, we will see who the true fool is—Trump, or the American people.