Parallels between current presidential candidate Donald Trump and ex-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger are myriad and obvious to anyone who cares to look.
Both are celebrities with no need to spend money on getting-to-know-you TV commercials like ordinary candidates for high office. Both went after political offices after pursuing lucrative careers not even slightly related to running a government. Each claimed not to need special interest money, since both are rolling in dough.
Neither has shown the slightest worry about the rumors or reality of his womanizing past and (maybe) present. Voters male and female never have shown signs of worry about their personal indiscretions.
Mr. Trump’s flashy campaign style, featuring his blue-painted personal jumbo jet and occasional rides for kids in his personal helicopter apes Mr. Schwarzenegger’s practice of constantly surrounding himself with klieg lights and aides attired in expensive leather jackets festooned with Arnold-related logos. Because he campaigned only in California, Mr. Schwarzenegger never needed a jumbo like Mr. Trump’s Boeing 757, but could make do with a mere private jet he kept at the Santa Monica Airport, not far from his home in Mandeville Canyon.
Similarities go on, the largest being that their support levels never are diminished by their errors, ignorance or sins. It almost is as if both were Kardashians, members of a dynasty founded by a lawyer pal of accused and acquitted wife-killer O.J. Simpson, Robert Kardashian, who long was suspected of destroying or hiding key evidence sought by police.
That background never has held back any member of his clan.
Who Said That?
Nor has the way Arnold and The Donald ignore the old caution to “be sure brain is engaged before putting mouth into gear.”
Several months into the campaign for next year’s Republican presidential nomination, Mr. Trump continues to lead the GOP field, where the No. 2 spot in the polls fluctuates unpredictably.
As with Mr. Schwarzenegger, and decades earlier with actor Ronald Reagan, Democrats don’t yet see Mr. Trump as a serious threat. He puts foot in mouth at least once a week, rarely apologizing and never backing off what would be serious gaffes for any non-celebrity.
Consistency also doesn’t matter. Mr. Trump has changed positions on everything from abortion to immigration. When he entered politics, the muscleman actor Schwarzenegger didn’t have prior positions he could contradict. But he frequently broke promises, including the first one he made as a recall election candidate in 2003.
Starting his run on NBC’s Tonight Show, Mr. Schwarzenegger vowed never to accept special interest money. Then he immediately began accepting campaign contributions from oil companies, car dealers and almost any interest willing to write a check. He promised to order an independent investigation into allegations he groped and otherwise sexually harassed women. It never happened. There were many others.
Once he became governor, it quickly became clear Mr. Schwarzenegger had little notion of how to run America’s largest state government. He began by threatening public employee unions, who famously whipped him in every ballot initiative contest they fought. He gave orders to the state attorney general, only to be reminded that independently-elected official did not work for him. He appointed a former utility company president to regulate that company as president of the California Public Utilities Commission.
Would Mr. Trump, who has bragged about taking advantage of federal bankruptcy laws because “everyone else in my position does,” display similar desires to be a kind of strongman? There’s little doubt he would bring at least as much bombast to the office.
Democrats who now belittle Mr. Trump’s White House chances because he doesn’t pepper his speeches with many facts or pay much heed to what he could do by himself if elected should remember Mr. Reagan, who as a campaigner also did not bother much with facts.
When faced with tough questions in the early months of his winning 1980 campaign, he often turned toward the wings offstage, saying “I’ll let Ed (Meese) answer that one,” referring to a top aide he later appointed U.S. attorney general. When an opponent rattled off facts and pointed out his contradictions during debates, he grinned wryly into the camera and said, “There he goes again.”
He always won easily. So might Mr. Trump if Democrats keep taking him lightly. That’s the lesson for them from Mr. Reagan and Mr. Schwarzenegger, the only other big-time celebrities to seek the highest office they possibly could.
Mr. Elias is author of the current book “The Burzynski Breakthrough: The Most Promising Cancer Treatment and the Government’s Campaign to Squelch It,” now available in an updated third edition. His email address is tdelias@aol.com