The Unprecedented Presidency: Entertainer as President
Donald Trump's primary occupation prior to becoming President was as a real estate developer, but his election to the presidency was unprecedented for the fact that he had never help elected political office or high military rank before becoming President. Part of his background was as an entertainer. In 2003, Trump became the co-producer and host of The Apprentice, a reality show in which contestants competed for a one-year management job with the Trump Organization. The contestants would be judged by Trump on their abilities to perform assigned tasks and Trump would weed out applicants by eliminating them from the contest with the catchphrase "You're fired". He later co-hosted The Celebrity Apprentice, in which celebrities competed to win money for charities.
Donald Trump has also made cameo appearances in eight films and television shows, including the movie Home Alone 2: Lost in New York, starring Macaulay Culkin. He performed a song as a Green Acres character with Megan Mullally at the 57th Primetime Emmy Awards in 2005. Other films he has appeared in include Zoolander, Ghosts Can't Do It and the Little Rascals. He has hosted the TV show Saturday Night Live in 2004 and again in 2015 during his presidential campaign.
He has also done some professional wrestling promotion for the World Wrestling Federation (later renamed World Wrestling Entertainment or WWE) and has worked with its owners Vince and Linda McMahon. In 1988 and 1989, WrestleMania IV and V took place at the Atlantic City Convention Hall. Trump and McMahon were billed in storyline taking place at the nearby Trump Plaza. In 2004, Trump appeared for a live interview at WrestleMania XX, conducted by Jesse Ventura, a former wrestler and former Governor of Minnesota.
In his most memorable wrestling stunt, in 2007 Trump participated in the "Battle of the Billionaires" storyline, which featured a mock feud against Vince McMahon. The feud led to Trump headlining WrestleMania 23. Each man had a representative wrestler and the billionaire whose wrestler won the match was allowed to shave the other billionaire's head bald. Trump's wrestler, Bobby Lashley, defeated McMahon's representative wrestler, Umaga, and after the match McMahon was shaved bald by Trump. Guest referee Stone Cold Steve Austin then attacked Trump with the Stone Cold Stunner wrestling move.
In 2009, Trump and McMahon participated in another stunt in which the storyline was that Trump bought WWE's flagship television program WWE Raw from McMahon, but then re-sold it back shortly after. Trump was inducted into the celebrity wing of the WWE Hall of Fame in 2013. As president, Trump in 2016 appointed Linda McMahon to his Cabinet as Administrator of the Small Business Administration.
While Trump broke precedent by being elected president without holding elected political office or high military rank, he is not the first President to have been an actor in movies or TV. Ronald Reagan, the 40th President, had a long career as a movie and TV actor, though unlike Trump, Reagan had won election to high political office, the Governorship of California.
After graduating from Eureka College in 1932, Reagan worked in Iowa as a radio announcer at several stations. He moved to WHO radio in Des Moines as an announcer for Chicago Cubs baseball games, creating play-by-play accounts of games using only basic descriptions that the station received by wire as the games were in progress. While traveling with the Cubs in California in 1937, Reagan took a screen test that led to a seven-year contract with Warner Brothers studios. Reagan spent the first few years of his Hollywood career in the "B film" unit. He once joked about the films he made that the producers "didn't want them good; they wanted them Thursday".
He earned his first screen credit in a starring role in the 1937 movie Love Is on the Air. By the end of 1939, he had already appeared in 19 films, including Dark Victory with Bette Davis and Humphrey Bogart and in the film Santa Fe Trail with Errol Flynn in 1940. He also played the role of George Gipp in the film Knute Rockne, All American and it was from this movie that he acquired the lifelong nickname "the Gipper." In 1941, he was voted as the fifth most popular star from the younger generation in Hollywood. Reagan said that his favorite acting role was in the 1942 film Kings Row, where he plays a double amputee. In the film he utters the line "Where's the rest of me?" and he would later use that line as the title of his 1965 autobiography. Many film critics considered Kings Row to be his best film.
Kings Row catapulted Reagan to stardom and Warner Brother immediately tripled his salary after the film, paying him $3,000 a week. In early 1942, his movie career was interrupted when he was ordered into military active duty in San Francisco. He spent most of his time in the service making training films and other public service films. After his wartime military service he co-starred in such films as The Voice of the Turtle, John Loves Mary, The Hasty Heart, Bedtime for Bonzo, Cattle Queen of Montana, Tennessee's Partner, Hellcats of the Navy (the only film in which he appears with Nancy Reagan), and the 1964 remake The Killers (his final film).
Reagan was first elected to the Board of Directors of the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) in 1941, serving as an alternate member. After World War II, he was elected third vice president in 1946. When the SAG president and six board members resigned in March 1947 due to the union's new bylaws on conflict of interest, Reagan was elected president in a special election. He was subsequently re-elected six times, in 1947, 1948, 1949, 1950, 1951 and 1959. He led the SAG through the Hollywood blacklist era. In 1947 Studio executives had agreed that they would not employ anyone believed to be or to have been a Communist or a Communist sympathizer. The blacklist grew larger during the early 1950s as the U.S. Congress continued to investigate domestic political subversion.
Reagan was offered fewer film roles in the late 1950s and moved into television. He was hired as the host of General Electric Theater, a series of weekly dramas that became very popular. His contract required him to tour General Electric (GE) plants 16 weeks out of the year, which often demanded that he give 14 talks per day. He earned approximately $125,000 (equivalent to $1.1 million in 2019) in this role. The show ran for ten seasons from 1953 to 1962, which increased Reagan's national profile. On January 1, 1959, Reagan served as host and announcer for ABC's coverage of the Tournament of Roses Parade. In his final work as a professional actor, Reagan was a host and performer from 1964 to 1965 on the television series Death Valley Days. His exposure to the public would enhance
Donald Trump has also made cameo appearances in eight films and television shows, including the movie Home Alone 2: Lost in New York, starring Macaulay Culkin. He performed a song as a Green Acres character with Megan Mullally at the 57th Primetime Emmy Awards in 2005. Other films he has appeared in include Zoolander, Ghosts Can't Do It and the Little Rascals. He has hosted the TV show Saturday Night Live in 2004 and again in 2015 during his presidential campaign.
He has also done some professional wrestling promotion for the World Wrestling Federation (later renamed World Wrestling Entertainment or WWE) and has worked with its owners Vince and Linda McMahon. In 1988 and 1989, WrestleMania IV and V took place at the Atlantic City Convention Hall. Trump and McMahon were billed in storyline taking place at the nearby Trump Plaza. In 2004, Trump appeared for a live interview at WrestleMania XX, conducted by Jesse Ventura, a former wrestler and former Governor of Minnesota.
In his most memorable wrestling stunt, in 2007 Trump participated in the "Battle of the Billionaires" storyline, which featured a mock feud against Vince McMahon. The feud led to Trump headlining WrestleMania 23. Each man had a representative wrestler and the billionaire whose wrestler won the match was allowed to shave the other billionaire's head bald. Trump's wrestler, Bobby Lashley, defeated McMahon's representative wrestler, Umaga, and after the match McMahon was shaved bald by Trump. Guest referee Stone Cold Steve Austin then attacked Trump with the Stone Cold Stunner wrestling move.
In 2009, Trump and McMahon participated in another stunt in which the storyline was that Trump bought WWE's flagship television program WWE Raw from McMahon, but then re-sold it back shortly after. Trump was inducted into the celebrity wing of the WWE Hall of Fame in 2013. As president, Trump in 2016 appointed Linda McMahon to his Cabinet as Administrator of the Small Business Administration.
While Trump broke precedent by being elected president without holding elected political office or high military rank, he is not the first President to have been an actor in movies or TV. Ronald Reagan, the 40th President, had a long career as a movie and TV actor, though unlike Trump, Reagan had won election to high political office, the Governorship of California.
After graduating from Eureka College in 1932, Reagan worked in Iowa as a radio announcer at several stations. He moved to WHO radio in Des Moines as an announcer for Chicago Cubs baseball games, creating play-by-play accounts of games using only basic descriptions that the station received by wire as the games were in progress. While traveling with the Cubs in California in 1937, Reagan took a screen test that led to a seven-year contract with Warner Brothers studios. Reagan spent the first few years of his Hollywood career in the "B film" unit. He once joked about the films he made that the producers "didn't want them good; they wanted them Thursday".
He earned his first screen credit in a starring role in the 1937 movie Love Is on the Air. By the end of 1939, he had already appeared in 19 films, including Dark Victory with Bette Davis and Humphrey Bogart and in the film Santa Fe Trail with Errol Flynn in 1940. He also played the role of George Gipp in the film Knute Rockne, All American and it was from this movie that he acquired the lifelong nickname "the Gipper." In 1941, he was voted as the fifth most popular star from the younger generation in Hollywood. Reagan said that his favorite acting role was in the 1942 film Kings Row, where he plays a double amputee. In the film he utters the line "Where's the rest of me?" and he would later use that line as the title of his 1965 autobiography. Many film critics considered Kings Row to be his best film.
Kings Row catapulted Reagan to stardom and Warner Brother immediately tripled his salary after the film, paying him $3,000 a week. In early 1942, his movie career was interrupted when he was ordered into military active duty in San Francisco. He spent most of his time in the service making training films and other public service films. After his wartime military service he co-starred in such films as The Voice of the Turtle, John Loves Mary, The Hasty Heart, Bedtime for Bonzo, Cattle Queen of Montana, Tennessee's Partner, Hellcats of the Navy (the only film in which he appears with Nancy Reagan), and the 1964 remake The Killers (his final film).
Reagan was first elected to the Board of Directors of the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) in 1941, serving as an alternate member. After World War II, he was elected third vice president in 1946. When the SAG president and six board members resigned in March 1947 due to the union's new bylaws on conflict of interest, Reagan was elected president in a special election. He was subsequently re-elected six times, in 1947, 1948, 1949, 1950, 1951 and 1959. He led the SAG through the Hollywood blacklist era. In 1947 Studio executives had agreed that they would not employ anyone believed to be or to have been a Communist or a Communist sympathizer. The blacklist grew larger during the early 1950s as the U.S. Congress continued to investigate domestic political subversion.
Reagan was offered fewer film roles in the late 1950s and moved into television. He was hired as the host of General Electric Theater, a series of weekly dramas that became very popular. His contract required him to tour General Electric (GE) plants 16 weeks out of the year, which often demanded that he give 14 talks per day. He earned approximately $125,000 (equivalent to $1.1 million in 2019) in this role. The show ran for ten seasons from 1953 to 1962, which increased Reagan's national profile. On January 1, 1959, Reagan served as host and announcer for ABC's coverage of the Tournament of Roses Parade. In his final work as a professional actor, Reagan was a host and performer from 1964 to 1965 on the television series Death Valley Days. His exposure to the public would enhance