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Farewell to the Man Who Gave Us Trump Farewell to the Man Who Gave Us Trump
(about 13 hours later)
ROME — The tycoon-turned-politician spent his career mixing entertainment and power, escaping sex scandals and remodeling his party in his own plasticized image. He claimed elections he lost were actually stolen from him. Law enforcement scrutinized his businesses, and he incessantly praised his longtime friend Vladimir Putin. Struggling to beat him politically, opponents relied on prosecutors to oust him through the courts. But he managed to turn even that to his favor, raising the specter of political persecution to re-energize his electorate and remain firmly at the center of his country’s politics for years.ROME — The tycoon-turned-politician spent his career mixing entertainment and power, escaping sex scandals and remodeling his party in his own plasticized image. He claimed elections he lost were actually stolen from him. Law enforcement scrutinized his businesses, and he incessantly praised his longtime friend Vladimir Putin. Struggling to beat him politically, opponents relied on prosecutors to oust him through the courts. But he managed to turn even that to his favor, raising the specter of political persecution to re-energize his electorate and remain firmly at the center of his country’s politics for years.
That sounds a lot like Donald Trump. But it’s actually Silvio Berlusconi, who died on Monday at the age of 86.That sounds a lot like Donald Trump. But it’s actually Silvio Berlusconi, who died on Monday at the age of 86.
Four times Italy’s prime minister, Mr. Berlusconi dominated this country’s politics for three decades and fundamentally reshaped its landscape and imagination. An ebullient entrepreneur who was raised in a middle-class family in Milan and once sang cheap love songs on cruise ships to make a buck, he rose to prominence as the mastermind of Italy’s commercial television. In the mid-1990s, after the fall of the First Republic, he devoted himself to politics with remarkable energy. In many ways, Mr. Berlusconi’s story is an inextricably Italian one. But it also goes beyond the peninsula. In leveraging his fame and celebrity to gain power — and managing against all odds to retain it — Mr. Berlusconi provided a template for Mr. Trump’s political career.Four times Italy’s prime minister, Mr. Berlusconi dominated this country’s politics for three decades and fundamentally reshaped its landscape and imagination. An ebullient entrepreneur who was raised in a middle-class family in Milan and once sang cheap love songs on cruise ships to make a buck, he rose to prominence as the mastermind of Italy’s commercial television. In the mid-1990s, after the fall of the First Republic, he devoted himself to politics with remarkable energy. In many ways, Mr. Berlusconi’s story is an inextricably Italian one. But it also goes beyond the peninsula. In leveraging his fame and celebrity to gain power — and managing against all odds to retain it — Mr. Berlusconi provided a template for Mr. Trump’s political career.
The parallels between them are obvious. The two had exorbitant egos, openly admired strongmen, were obsessed with TV and had a penchant for kitsch furniture and lewd jokes. Perhaps most important, they both possessed an instinctive ability to tap into the passions of the populace. One came from real estate, the other from media: They met halfway, in the borderland of entertainment. They also shared a predilection for the politics of paranoia. Long before Mr. Trump cried “witch hunt” and labeled the Manhattan district attorney prosecuting him a “psychopath,” Mr. Berlusconi was denouncing a Communist plot brought by judges in “red robes” who were out to destroy him.
Mr. Berlusconi’s tricks and oddities to elude his critics rivaled, perhaps even exceeded, those of Mr. Trump. The hush money Mr. Trump allegedly paid to Stormy Daniels seems almost mundane compared with the time Mr. Berlusconi called the police claiming that Karima el-Mahroug, a 17-year-old guest of one of his infamous “bunga bunga” parties who had been arrested, was a niece of the Egyptian president, Hosni Mubarak. To whatever charge, Mr. Berlusconi always had an answer.