Speaker 1: M.
Speaker 2: Donald Trump is standing in the middle of a packed auditorium.
Speaker 2: The sense of excitement is palpable, the air full of
Speaker 2: tension and testosterone. He is commanding the moment. Except this
Speaker 2: is not a Trump rally. It's w w E. First
Speaker 2: of all, that's.
Speaker 3: You're great friends are no match for my Trump towers.
Speaker 2: And Trump is here to battle it out against w
Speaker 2: w a's billionaire founder Bence McMahon. The host, don't play over.
Speaker 2: I'm Donald Trump, that McMahon, that's happened Russel Lady twenty
Speaker 2: three from Schwartz Media. I'm Daniel James. This is seven AM,
Speaker 2: the now infamous Battle of the Billionaires. It's not the
Speaker 2: only time Trump's appeared in WWE. He's even got a
Speaker 2: spot in the Sports Hall of Fame. But this two
Speaker 2: thousand and seven match against Prince McMahon was a sign
Speaker 2: of Trump's deep connection to pro wrestling, which has shaped
Speaker 2: how he speaks and how he does politics. It's also
Speaker 2: a sign of Trump's long standing friendship with McMahon, which
Speaker 2: he has rewarded by giving his ex wife Linda McMahon
Speaker 2: the Royal Secretary of Education in his new cabinet. Today
Speaker 2: contributed to the Saturday Paper. Joseph Herb on how Donald
Speaker 2: Trump brought the art of pro wrestling into politics and
Speaker 2: how it helped make him popular. It's Thursday, December five. Joseph,
Speaker 2: Let's talk about the WWE World Wrestling Entertainment. When did
Speaker 2: you first watch it and what did you love about I.
Speaker 4: Think I first encountered it when I was very young.
Speaker 4: Like a lot of people of my generation, it was
Speaker 4: something that was always in the kind of background culturally,
Speaker 4: and I remember going up the road there were like
Speaker 4: a bunch of boys who lived a couple of doors
Speaker 4: up and they were obsessed with it, and it was
Speaker 4: one of those things where I was younger, I was
Speaker 4: on the outer and getting into wrestling was a way
Speaker 4: of kind of connecting with them and getting in with them, hopeful,
Speaker 4: ready for WrestleMania.
Speaker 5: Give me your hell, Yeah, you damn right, because Dom
Speaker 5: col Steve Austin has been shirked around long enough.
Speaker 4: And I remember finding it kind of shocking and strange
Speaker 4: and just being enthralled.
Speaker 3: It is in all its fiery sight to see this
Speaker 3: ring so ragged by these ways in one of these men, ladies,
Speaker 3: the gentlemen will be.
Speaker 4: Bored tonight and It's one of those things that more
Speaker 4: recently that I guess I've studied really seeing it as
Speaker 4: a real art form that also has moments which are
Speaker 4: moving and beautiful and authentic, and I think that's exactly
Speaker 4: what wrestling is.
Speaker 2: And at the center of it all was the owner
Speaker 2: of WWA, Vince mcmham. Can you tell me a lot
Speaker 2: about him and the character that he started to play
Speaker 2: as he grew out watching.
Speaker 4: Yeah, Vince McMahon is a really interesting character. Vince was
Speaker 4: involved in the world of wrestling since the sixties. Before Vince,
Speaker 4: the wrestling territories were all separate and he was the
Speaker 4: man who kind of brought them together and united them
Speaker 4: and created the WWE. He was a commentator, but it
Speaker 4: wasn't known for some time that he was the man
Speaker 4: calling the shots until it kind of leaked. It became
Speaker 4: public knowledge. He started to attract a lot of negative
Speaker 4: attention from wrestling audiences for the decisions he was making
Speaker 4: as the man in charge.
Speaker 3: He is the owner of the World Wrestling Federation.
Speaker 2: It's McMahon.
Speaker 4: Well, you didn't have the longer they I reflect, and
Speaker 4: because he's a very kind of shrewd businessman and creative
Speaker 4: force he realized that he could use that negative attention
Speaker 4: from crowds, and he used that heat and turned himself
Speaker 4: into a character. So for many years he played a
Speaker 4: wrestling character called mister McMahon, who was an extension of
Speaker 4: his real life persona. He was, you know, wearing these big,
Speaker 4: boxy suits and he was strutting into the ring.
Speaker 2: You are bought it line and sacer you are line.
Speaker 3: They didn't even my family, even my immediate family bought it.
Speaker 2: Every damn one of you were made fools.
Speaker 4: So he played this kind of arch villain in wrestling
Speaker 4: storylines for many, many years as the Evil Boss who
Speaker 4: was this craven capitalist whose catchphrase was You're fired.
Speaker 2: Screw you, You're fired. Would it be right to say
Speaker 2: that he sounds a little bit like Donald Trump? I
Speaker 2: think so.
Speaker 4: I mean Trump and Vince are close friends. There's a
Speaker 4: writer called Abraham Josephine Riceman who wrote a biography of Vince,
Speaker 4: who has made a pretty convincing case that Vince is
Speaker 4: one of Trump's closest friends. I think Trump was drawn
Speaker 4: to Vince. I mean, Trump is called Vince a great man.
Speaker 2: Vince is an amazing man.
Speaker 1: He really is.
Speaker 2: I mean, we're kid, and we have fun.
Speaker 5: But everybody knows he's an amazing guy.
Speaker 4: As these stories that when Trump was last president, when
Speaker 4: Vince would call, Trump would clear the room in order
Speaker 4: to talk to him. And the WWE has its Hall
Speaker 4: of Fame, and it's an honor that has been bestowed
Speaker 4: on Donald Trump, who is an official WWE Hall of
Speaker 4: Fame inductee.
Speaker 2: Is my just think honor to introduce you to the
Speaker 2: newest of the w Hall of Fame class of twenty thirteen. So,
Speaker 2: I Vince seems to have really inspired Trump.
Speaker 4: I think we can really see that Trump has modeled
Speaker 4: his persona on Vince McMahon, not only in the cadence
Speaker 4: of Trump's speech that kind of rambly, insulting, kind of
Speaker 4: generating nicknames, going for jokes, going for laughlines and applause lines.
Speaker 6: You've called women you don't like, fat pigs, dogs, slobs,
Speaker 6: and disgusting animals.
Speaker 7: Your Twitter account.
Speaker 2: Only rotte O'donald.
Speaker 3: Hillary Clynton, commonly referred to as Crooked Hillary, thinks that
Speaker 3: you you, all of you are deplorable and totally irredeemable,
Speaker 3: like we need help to beat sleep be Joe Biden.
Speaker 2: I don't think so.
Speaker 4: That is very very wrestling, and in particular that's very Vince,
Speaker 4: but also just the content of what Trump says, like
Speaker 4: even if you hate me, you're still paying attention to me,
Speaker 4: and you're still obsessed with me, And that's a very
Speaker 4: old wrestling trick. I mean, there was a rally earlier
Speaker 4: this year where he played a super cut of Kamala
Speaker 4: Harris just mentioning Trump over and over, just constantly talking about.
Speaker 5: Him regard it didn't allow that to happen. Last night,
Speaker 5: a couple of made a speech, not much of one
Speaker 5: were they paid for audience, and all she talked about
Speaker 5: was Donald Trump.
Speaker 2: Everyone tonight I will speak about Donald Trump, Donald Trump,
Speaker 2: Donald Trump, Donald.
Speaker 4: And I think that's very heel. It's like, even if
Speaker 4: you hate me, how come I'm on your brains all
Speaker 4: the time. So there's this incredibly close friendship between by
Speaker 4: all reports, between Vince and Trump, and it's a case
Speaker 4: of the two men influencing and shaping each other to
Speaker 4: both of the benefit. And that's paid off in a
Speaker 4: big way, I think for Trump in terms of it
Speaker 4: being a key way that he has created popularity. And
Speaker 4: it's also paid off for the McMahons because Linda has
Speaker 4: been appointed to a key position within the Trump cabinet.
Speaker 2: After the break, Linda McMahon enters the arena. Joseph, what
Speaker 2: can you tell me about Vince's ex wife, Linda McMahon
Speaker 2: and how she ended up in the Trump cabinet?
Speaker 4: Linda is interesting. So Linda and Vince matt when they
Speaker 4: were quite young, they co founded Titan Entertainment, which which
Speaker 4: is the company behind WWE.
Speaker 2: Together.
Speaker 4: Their marriage and business partnership was always clearly quite delineated,
Speaker 4: where it would be like Vince is the big, colorful
Speaker 4: character and Linda is the shrewd, sensible, quieter business side
Speaker 4: of proceedings. But there were times when that was muddied.
Speaker 4: So there was this multi episode long storyline about very succession,
Speaker 4: ask about the schisms within the McMahon family, and it
Speaker 4: culminated in Linda on stage in a wheelchair, acting as
Speaker 4: though she was heavily medicated while Vince kissed a wrestler
Speaker 4: that he was meant to be having an affair with.
Speaker 3: I can't believe he's croppy, kissy trish like that in
Speaker 3: front of his own wine.
Speaker 4: So, if you're part of the wrestling business, particularly in
Speaker 4: the nineties and early two thousands, you're gonna get absorbed
Speaker 4: into a wrestling storyline, and that's exactly what happened to Linda.
Speaker 1: My name is Linda McMahon, and I am the chair
Speaker 1: of the America First Policy Institute.
Speaker 4: So Linda has been involved in the Republican Party for
Speaker 4: some time unsuccessfully until she kind of attached herself to Trump.
Speaker 1: I perhaps one of the few people who's been privileged
Speaker 1: to call Donald Trump a colleague and a boss, but
Speaker 1: he's also a friend.
Speaker 4: She served as part of Trump's twenty sixteen administration. She's
Speaker 4: also helped in the re election campaign, and she's now
Speaker 4: his pick for Secretary of Education.
Speaker 2: Does she have a background in education.
Speaker 4: She has tried to tell people that the answer to
Speaker 4: that question is yes.
Speaker 7: McMahon's only educational experience is one year serving on the
Speaker 7: Connecticut Board of Education back in two thousand and nine
Speaker 7: and years on the board of trustees for Sacred Heart University.
Speaker 4: People who support her will point to the fact that
Speaker 4: when she was a big figure in the WWE, she
Speaker 4: would push literacy programs through wrestlers, kind of do public
Speaker 4: service education that way. But many people have pointed out
Speaker 4: that she has been implicated in a recent lawsuit which
Speaker 4: basically alleges that there was widespread and very well known
Speaker 4: sexual abuse against ring boys, so young men who were
Speaker 4: involved in wrestling matches, and there are some very kind
Speaker 4: of serious allegations that she was part of a culture
Speaker 4: that facilitated and allowed this abuse.
Speaker 6: Long time ringside announcer Melvin Phillips targeted young men from
Speaker 6: disadvantage backgrounds and hired them as ring boys to help
Speaker 6: with wrestling matches. Plaintiffs accused Phillips of abusing them while
Speaker 6: in several states, including here in Maryland.
Speaker 4: Also, Vince is no longer part of the WWE. He
Speaker 4: has had some very serious allegations against him. Vince has
Speaker 4: been implicated in lawsuits and investigations on the way he
Speaker 4: allegedly facilitated abuse of all kinds, and some which focus
Speaker 4: on direct claims on his behavior, including some very serious
Speaker 4: sex trafficking allegations, all.
Speaker 2: Of which makes Lynna McMahon a controversial choice to be
Speaker 2: in charge of education.
Speaker 4: Yeah, there has been a lot of criticism of her,
Speaker 4: and I think, you know, a lot very justified. Trump
Speaker 4: has tried to say that she's the owner of this
Speaker 4: extremely successful business. I mean, WWE is a billion dollar company.
Speaker 4: So he's tried to use her success in business as
Speaker 4: as a kind of sign that she knows what's good
Speaker 4: for America's youth and she can teach them in that way.
Speaker 2: So what do you think we missed when we overlook
Speaker 2: the impact all the influence that pray wrestling has and
Speaker 2: Donald Trump and the way he operates.
Speaker 4: I say this with no glowing secret admiration or anything,
Speaker 4: but we have to take seriously the things that have
Speaker 4: made Trump popular. For years, wrestling has been talked about
Speaker 4: as yeah, oh it's fake, you know. It's talked about
Speaker 4: as at best fictional child's play on the PA for
Speaker 4: reality TV, and at worst a corrupting influence on children.
Speaker 4: And this has come up a lot since Linda has
Speaker 4: been appointed, and there was a kind of slightly patronizing
Speaker 4: view of being like, well, Trump just kind of appeals
Speaker 4: to these baser instincts. And while that's true, this mode
Speaker 4: is very good at generating attention and it is a
Speaker 4: storytelling mode.
Speaker 2: It works.
Speaker 4: It has made Vince McMahon an extremely powerful person. And
Speaker 4: the writer I mentioned earlier, Abraham Josephine Raisman, has spoken
Speaker 4: about us living in a world of Vince McMahon's making
Speaker 4: and if that's true, that's in some respects very very worrying,
Speaker 4: and in order to hopefully change it to a different world,
Speaker 4: we have to take wrestling seriously.
Speaker 2: Thanks so much for your time, Joseph.
Speaker 4: A pleasure, a true pleasure.
Speaker 2: Also in the news today, Green Senator Sarah Hanson Young
Speaker 2: has said that Murdoch Media executives should explain their disregard
Speaker 2: for basic journalistic ethics after News Corp Templot's right identical
Speaker 2: stories mating fossil fuels sponsored by the gas industry. The
Speaker 2: story is published on Monday, which told Australia to quote
Speaker 2: step on the gas We'll pay for by Santos, Gemino
Speaker 2: and Tambourine and part of a week long series. Senator
Speaker 2: hansy Young says she'll be calling Murdock media executives before
Speaker 2: the Senate inquiry into greenwashing, which is due to report
Speaker 2: in February twenty twenty five. And South Korean President Jansukyal
Speaker 2: lived at a declaration of martial law after a night
Speaker 2: of angry protests. The president shocked much of the world
Speaker 2: by declaring martial law in the country for the first
Speaker 2: time in nearly fifty years. Citing national security reasons, but
Speaker 2: critics say the move was made in regards to his
Speaker 2: beleague of political position in South Korea, and within hours
Speaker 2: of the announcement, South Korea's parliament voted down the measure.
Speaker 2: I'm Daniel James seven am will be back tomorrow