Trump was explicitly the inspiration for rich-Biff in Back to the Future part 2, so if you’ve seen that, you’ll have some idea of how people thought of him.

My dad is about 60. White Midwestern man. Loved trash TV right after reality TV had that first big wave. He loved the one about tow trucks and The Apprentice. My dad thought it was so cool.

I also had an ancient as shit 5th grade teacher in about 1999. She was maybe… 60? Older? She would always say dumb shit like “as rich as Donald Trump, but you guys are too young to know about him.”

In the Sopranos, Tony’s son is coming of age and his dad wants him to go to college so he doesn’t follow him into crime. But AJ tells his dad at one point he wants to becomr a helicopter pilot. And fly for people like Trump.

He was always lurking in the background. Like a celebrity for morons.

He was a synonym for rich guy for awhile. And was even on WWE. So, depends how you define cool.

I think it’s a great idea not to idolize strangers. You say you liked Elon but folks in tech have always known he’s a piece of shit and some of his oldest “friends” (i.e. Thiel) fucking loathe him.

Wealth, generally, fucks people up so it’s good to avoid the wealthy and famous as a default rule…

Why not appreciate people around you, friends, family, your mail folk - these people are much more impactful on your life and their kindnesses in your times of need have the potential to be life saving.

I mean you admit you fell for elon’s ruse.

Why is it such a stretch that someone else fell for trumps?

The very first time Trump’s name was in a major newspaper was in the 1970s when The New York Times reported on the Nixon administration suing Trump and his father for racist housing policies in the apartment buildings they owned in NYC.

Then in the 80s he was the model for Biff Tannen, the villain in the Back to the Future movies. He was parodied by everyone from The Simpsons to MAD Magazine to SNL as the epitome of the sleazy 80s business guy.

No, he was never cool except to a very small slice of people who the sleazy 80s business guy aesthetic appeals to, and nobody thinks those guys are cool.

Rappers used to rap about trying to be like Trump. I can even think of a skit where Method Man had him make a voice memo for him on one of his albums.

People idolized him because of his rich image, unfortunately.

Before he got into power, hotels and casino businesses of his went bankrupt six times. That’s pretty uncool.

Not as far as I can remember, first memory of him was some story about him stiffing vendors.

If you think rape and sexual assault to the contestants in your own beauty pageant is cool then i guess? 🤷 Idk I always thought the guy a loser since I first saw him on TV.

He was never cool, but he used to be considered a mildly amusing rich guy. He actually seemed to have a sense of humour at some point.

Nope.

I met him as a child in the mid 80s at a balloon festival in NJ. He was there with some other rich dude, might’ve been Warren Buffett. They were handing out those little spinning helicopter things to kids. He seemed pretty cool from a five year old’s perspective.