The multiple meanings of Donald Trump
Figure #1 – Donald Trump speaking at the 2013 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in National Harbor, Maryland. (Skidmore, 2013)
Donald Trump became the de facto heir to the Trump real estate empire after the death of his father Fred Trump. During the 1970s and 1980s, President Trump made a successful jump from his native borough of Queens as well as real estate holdings in Brooklyn to Manhattan. Over a particularly fruitful time for his real estate company, Trump Jr. made a series of high profile real estate moves in the business center of New York City. These included the run down Commodore Hotel across from Grand Central Station, the Plaza Hotel at the south end of Central Park, and the crown jewel in his own personal empire, building the eponymously named Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue. His success was so strong that he eventually bridged across to New Jersey for casinos like the Trump Taj Mahal and a wide swath of buildings across the world.
Like his father Fred, Donald was as much of a talented “brander” as a real estate developer. In fact, Trump Jr. became so well-versed in branding that when his NBC show “The Apprentice” gained traction in the ratings, he became more well known for, and increasingly made revenue from, his branding as his real estate work.
Why is “The Donald” so successful as a brand, an endorser for a seemingly endless line of goods and services? As McCracken would write, “[t]he effectiveness of the endorser depends, in part, upon the meanings he or she brings to the endorsement process” (1989, p. 312). And being characterized as what McCracken would call a celebrity, President Trump inhabits a incredibly wide diversity of meanings.
In terms of the field of semiotics, if you could interpret Trump’s presidency, his acts both in and out of office, his voluminous tweets, or even himself as a whole as a sign/symbol, he has both a denotation and a wide array of connotations.
What are these terms? Semiotics is the art and science of signs. Denotation is the primary definition of a sign; what would be its most popular and widely known meaning. And connotation is the different secondary associations or meanings affiliated with a sign.
The denotation of Trump as a sign should be relatively simple. However, Trump as a person has at least a few definitions/meanings as a celebrity. He is widely known as a real estate developer, a reality television star, and now president.
However, it it is his connotations where his power as a brand becomes clearly evident as seen by these famous photos below.
Figure #2 – Combining upper and lower status signs
Depending on your political affiliation, although this photo may seem somewhat absurd given its location, it speaks to Trump’s multiple and divergent secondary associations (also known as connotations above). On one pole, his long red tie, power suit, candelabras, and location in the White House give Trump a great deal of appeal to the business class, political elite, and other powerful people.
On the other pole, the fast food and his easy demeanor (both in Figure #2) as well as his invitation to Clemson University’s football team (Figure #3) show he is a man of the people. He consumes the same American fast food as his blue collar supporters to celebrate football, America’s most popular sport.
Figure #3 – Clemson University football player takes a food hand off
Trump’s power as a brand, whether you like it or not, is that he can authentically inhabit both ends of the economic, political, and social scale. On one end, he is a billionaire, a real estate magnate, a television star, and president – the most powerful person in the world. On the other, he eats, talks, and tweets like his blue collar supporters.
As a result, the president has acted as a brand ambassador for a wide array of Trump-branded higher end products like steaks, real estate towers, a university, etc. At the same, he has been a brand ambassador for a reality television show, his Make American Great Again baseball caps, and even, ironically given the photo above, McDonald’s!
Although there is evidence of Trump losing his brand luster in the higher end markets (e.g., the removal of his surname from several buildings across the United States), his well-populated campaign rallies show that he still has blue collar appeal that is residual despite his low presidential approval numbers.
Donald Trump’s power as president will eventually end. However, his strong brand appeal, although likely narrowed since the beginning of his presidential campaign for the 2016 race among Democrats and the urban elite, will remain among a certain subset of Republicans and those residing in rural areas. Big Mac anyone?
References:
McCracken, G. (1989). Who is the celebrity endorser? Cultural foundations of the endorsement process. Journal of Consumer Research, 16(3), 310-321. https://doi.org/10.1086/209217
dino sossi 
