President Donald Trump may be the world’s greatest salesman. His greatest skill is offering political analysis in the language of a profane oaf. He sold the American voter on his toughness by being vulgar, crude and lacking in decorum.
In 1970, Vernard Eller published The MAD Morality with a parody of the song “Blowing in the Wind”: “The sponsors, my friend, will sell you all they can.” That would be a more honest song to sing at a Trump rally.
Trump convinced American voters in 2016 and 2024 he was the actual teller of truth. Justin McConney, Trump’s personal social media director, claimed Trump is “a marketing and media genius.” No president ever has so guilelessly turned lies into votes as Trump.
President Donald Trump holds up an executive order after signing it during an indoor inauguration parade at Capital One Arena on January 20, 2025 in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
My MAGA friends insist Trump is not a liar. They believe Trump is the most innocent, least racist and most pro-woman man on the planet. He is one helluva salesman. In our truth-deprived world, “Truth is whatever Trump says it is,” and MAGA says, “Amen.”
Trump, the New York real estate developer, sold himself as a “good ol’ boy” from the South, a populist for the people. From the time of Reconstruction to the present, no New York “Yankee” had been able to pass himself off as a good ol’ boy until Trump.
Trump bragged to radio shock jock Howard Stern, in reference to sexually transmitted diseases: “It is a dangerous world out there. It is scary. It’s like Vietnam, sort of like, you know, the Vietnam era.” Then Trump claimed: “It is my personal Vietnam. I feel like a great and very brave soldier.”
“Trump outstrips P.T. Barnum … and every crooked televangelist.”
Trump outstrips P.T. Barnum, every shyster who ever told a tall tale, every con artist, every swindler, every unscrupulous insurance salesman and every crooked televangelist. He makes Jim Bakker, the seller of a fake COVID cure called “Silver Solution,” look like a garden variety Sunday school teacher.
He deserves the vituperative description of the South offered by H.L. Mencken: The South consists of a “cesspool of Baptists, a miasma of Methodists, snake charmers, phony real estate agents and syphilitic evangelists.” While Mencken was no doubt engaging in hyperbole, there is evidence he was on to something.
Jim Bakker during a PTL show broadcast, 1986. (Photo by Peter K. Levy, public domain)
Trump keeps a sharp eye out for the next “amusement” he can sell the American people. He has responded positively to comparisons with Barnum. “We need P.T. Barnum, a little bit, because we have to build up the image of our country,” he said.
Barnum’s hyperbole, his willingness to bend the truth when promoting his entertainments, his artful manipulation of the press suggest comparisons with Trump. Barnum’s fondness for living large — he built a garish Moorish mansion he called “Iranistan” — calls to mind Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate as well as his White House renovations. Both men became teetotalers; both went bankrupt, only to claw their way back to the top.
As he explained in his bestselling book The Art of the Deal: “I play to people’s fantasies. People may not always think big themselves, but they can still get very excited by those who do. That’s why a little hyperbole never hurts. People want to believe that something is the biggest and the greatest and the most spectacular. I call it truthful hyperbole. It’s an innocent form of exaggeration — and a very effective form of promotion.”
“I call it truthful hyperbole. It’s an innocent form of exaggeration — and a very effective form of promotion.”
From “You’re fired” to “You’re deported,” from “making money” to “you lose your health insurance,” Trump plays America like Nero fiddling while Rome burned.
Trump throws out absurd notions as marketing surveys. Annex Canada as our 51st state! Seize the Panama Canal! Take control of Greenland! Turn the Gaza Strip into the “Trump Strip,” a playground for the wealthy!
The goods
At least part of the motivation for the “show” is an array of money-making ventures. Trump sells limited-edition gold watches for $499. Additionally, a limited-edition watch called the Trump Victory Tourbillion is available for $100,000, with only 147 manufactured.
Trump sells everything, or so it seems. Here’s a list of Trump products: “Make America Great Again” hats, T-shirts, sweatshirts/hoodies; Trump socks; Trump campaign flags, jewelry, mugs, signs and banners; Trump coins, calendars, books; books endorsed by Trump; Trump action figures and dolls; autographed photos; commemorative medallions or plates; challenge coins; phone cases; laptop decals and stickers; Trump-branded vitamins or supplements; Trump wine; Trump bottled water; Trump cologne; Trump nonfungible tokens, watches and Bibles.
The ‘bill of goods’
What Trump promotes with the White House as his shopping and entertainment mall suggest actions never taken by any other president in history. He has turned the Rose Garden into a limestone-covered area with yellow umbrellas for press conferences and entertainment — something akin to a mall food court.
His “big beautiful bill” contains $40 million for a “Garden of Heroes.” Since Trump believes his likeness should adorn Mount Rushmore, there’s no way of guessing the statutes that might appear in the new garden. Trump made this announcement as a response to what he deems “cancel culture” and “angry mobs” looking to “wipe out our history, defame our heroes, erase our values and indoctrinate our children.”
Even as Vice President JD Vance leads an effort to purge the Smithsonian museums of factual history and ensconce Trump’s reimagined history.
Plans have been announced for a new $200 million ballroom added to the White House. Trump said he and his friends would pay for the ballroom. So, $200 million for a ballroom while cutting aid to the poor makes logical sense to a salesman and showman. Even if he never pays a dime toward the project, which is his history. It’s a fake promise.
President Donald Trump and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz hold a meeting in the Oval Office at the White House on June 5. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
The gold-gilding salesman
Trump has turned the Oval Office into a tacky tribute to Louis XIV. He seems to have found no restraint for his desire to cover everything within his purview with fake gilding. Trump has made a gilded career out of self-aggrandizement. He believes the Gilded Age was the greatest period in American history. He is a man unwilling to be restrained.
He is the biggest fan of gilding — a thin layer of gold or gold-colored stuff. He’s selling the idea that it’s all worth more than it really is. He slaps gilding on all his properties and products worldwide.
Trump’s persuasive powers are so great, he seems to have influenced the Wimbledon officials into painting the royal box at Center Court in gold.
Trump appears to truly believe that maxim, “He who has the gold makes the rules.” Gold gilding is Trump’s brand. And he has convinced enough Americans to allow him to slap his brand on their foreheads. The “golden-fleeced” crowds at a Trump rally are a case in point. The idolatry of it all gags even a casual fan of the Ten Commandments.
Red MAGA caps and gold gilding are the Trump colors. Forget the evangelical predictions of the “666 Mark of the Beast.” MAGA is the mark as it signifies Trump’s deep con as his deceptive clownery takes America to the cleaners.
Tables and chairs are placed in the newly renovated Rose Garden of the White House, Friday, Aug. 8. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
Until Trump’s arrival, if you gave me a list of professions and asked me to select the one that didn’t fit — used car salesman, Bible salesman, digital card salesman, hat salesman and president, I naturally would have selected president as the one not fitting. Well, that’s no longer the case.
Trump and Elon Musk sold Teslas on the White House lawn. Trump promised to purchase one on the spot to energize sales. He reminds me of a Baptist evangelist who told me his practice of putting a hundred-dollar bill in the offering plate at every revival he preached. At one such meeting, he dropped his hundred in the plate on Monday evening. On Saturday, after the final service, the church treasurer gave him a check for $50. Now that Trump and Elon are no longer best buds, Trump has announced he is selling his $80,000 Telsa. Maybe he will only get $40,000 for it.
He now plans to have an Ultimate Fighting Championship bout at the White House in honor of America’s birthday in 2026. UFC is a mixed martial arts sport. I wonder how Linda McMahon, secretary of the Department of Education and CEO of World Wrestling Entertainment, feels about Dana White bringing mixed martial arts to the White House lawn.
Trump loves professional wrestling and mixed martial arts. He loves White. In a rally speech in Harrisburg, Pa., Trump said: “Dana White, the great Dana White. He introduced me the other day at our convention. We had the greatest convention in the history of politics, in my opinion. He heads up UFC. He’s done an incredible job.”
It’s not the “goods” Trump sells that endangers America; it’s the “bill of goods” he continues to sell. No one has ever sold so little of value too so many. One day, MAGA may be singing the Dan Seals song, “All that Glitters Is Not Gold.”
When it comes to the White House Shopping and Entertainment Center, all I can say is: “Stay tuned. Trump has an active imagination.”
Rodney W. Kennedy is a pastor and writer in New York state. He is the author of 11 books, including his latest, Dancing with Metaphors in the Pulpit.
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