PopPolitics: How Trump’s D.C. Slump Mirrors Tales of Hollywood’s Chumps (Listen)
The headlines are harsh and the punditry is pulling no punches in the aftermath of President Trump’s defeated effort to repeal and replace Obamacare.
Did Trump, who promised to shake up Washington and “drain the swamp,” end up getting engulfed by D.C. instead? Matt Drudge, a Trump supporter, tweeted this week, cryptically, “The swamp drains you.”
On the latest “PopPolitics” on SiriusXM’s POTUS Channel, writer-producer Rob Long offers a comparison of the turbulent opening act of the Trump presidency to a familiar story in Hollywood: The outsider financier, lured by the glamour and glitter of showbiz, determined to remake the business only to get fleeced in the process. A few examples: Coca-Cola, Japanese conglomerates, Wall Street investment firms, German dentists.
“Washington, they’ve been around for a long time. They are good at this. They are good at taking the new guy,” says Long, who is co-founder of the conservative site Ricochet. “Look, it’s a lot like Hollywood. Big companies have been buying into studios since time immemorial. … People in Hollywood, like people in D.C., are looking for the next guy to fleece and send on his way, and that is kind of what they are doing in D.C. right now.”
He adds, “Everybody wants to find somebody with deep pockets, that they can use to get what they want. In D.C., it is the same thing. The deep pockets aren’t always money. At times it is power and influence. They know they are going to be here long after that guy goes home. At some point, Trump’s going home, even if he wins a second term, he will only be there for another eight years.”
Listen below:
Long talks about whether Trump backers in Hollywood have reason to worry whether making their support risks their careers in a business dominated by the left.
Listen below:
‘American Jihad’
Alison Ellwood, director of the Showtime documentary “American Jihad,” talks about the making of her project, which examines young Americans who have been radicalized by jihadist groups to carry out terror attacks in the U.S. She says that one of the problems in addressing the issue is that it so rarely gets addressed on the political stage.
Listen below:
Tim Allen’s Nazi Germany Comment
Nikki Schwab of Daily Mail and David Cohen of Variety talk about Tim Allen’s comment, made on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!,” that to support Trump in Hollywood now is a risk. “If you don’t believe what everybody believes this is like ’30s Germany,” Allen said. It drew a rebuke from the Anne Frank Center of Mutual Respect.
Listen below:
“PopPolitics,” hosted by Variety’s Ted Johnson, airs on Thursdays from 2-3 p.m. ET/11 a.m.-noon PT on SiriusXM’s POTUS Channel. It also is available on demand.
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