‘American Psycho’: Why Donald Trump is all over the Brett Easton Ellis classic
Deep down, Patrick Bateman respects two things: serial killers and Donald Trump.
The President of the United States never appears in person in Brett Easton Ellis’ gruesome, repugnant masterpiece American Psycho, but he doesn’t have to. Trump is mentioned more than many of its major characters and is a deified figure in the eyes of the book’s central character. Bateman is a character who is, infamously, all for show. There is only an idea, and an abstraction of him. Something illusory. Perhaps he sees something of himself in another man who is quite simply, entirely for show.
Trump also represents nothing more than an idea of himself. This was the whole basis of the Trump brand, wasn’t it? It wasn’t that he had good ideas, it wasn’t that he stood for something, it was “this thing will make you more like me”. It was just for show, and Bateman was completely enamoured, so much so that it became a running joke in the story.
If you read between the lines, it becomes clear that all of Bateman’s peers know that they can get him to do anything they want if they say it has the Trump seal of approval. You need him to go to a U2 concert? Just say Trump is a big fan. You need him to turn up to a Young Republican event? Say it’s at Trump Plaza. You need him to change his mind on a pizza place he didn’t like? Just say that it’s Trump’s favourite pizza joint.
After all, and this is paraphrasing Bateman himself, if it’s good enough for Donnie, then it’s good enough for him.
Why was this idea of Trump so prescient?
So, why does this matter? Is it merely that Trump is the ultimate yuppie and thus, deserves a place in the ultimate yuppie satire? Sure, that’s a part of it. It’s a novel about rich dickheads in New York City in the 1980s, Trump would have been a major part of their lifestyles as he’s the richest, dickheadiest man in New York City at the time. However, if you scratch beyond the surface, it goes deeper in relation to the idea of what it means to aspire to something.
That’s the appeal of the Trump brand, isn’t it? He has a lifestyle worth aspiring towards, but to aspire to something, you also have to want something. To feel something. But Bateman doesn’t feel. He seems to just flounder until people validate him. Ironically enough, this seems to make him more like Trump than anything else. After all, Trump (like Bateman) will clearly do anything you say so long as you stroke his ego, as the sheer amount of puppet masters he’s gone through recently shows.
This wouldn’t be a problem if, 40 years after American Psycho was published, the idea of masculinity hadn’t eroded so utterly that a generation of young men seem to worship Bateman specifically for the fact that there’s nothing under the facade. It doesn’t matter that he’s an insecure, mentally ill coward who commits disgusting crimes simply because he can. It doesn’t matter that literally anyone can bring him to heel with a word. It doesn’t matter that he stands against everything they claim to stand for, because standing for something is cringe. He’s an idea, and that idea can be anything.
Now, am I talking about Patrick Bateman or Donald Trump?