Commentary: Is Trump the new ‘Colbert’?

When “The Colbert Report” ended so its star could move to “The Late Show,” many wondered what could ever replace it.

Now we have our answer: the presidency.

In one of the most meta media moves in history, Donald Trump has become the new “Stephen Colbert.”

He even has a “Trump bump.”

Back when the “Late Show” host was still doing “The Colbert Report,” he often referred to the “Colbert bump” — a phenomenon in which guests who experienced his character’s irate mockery could expect a subsequent rise in popularity. Their books sold, their ratings went up, their names trended.

Now Trump is having the same effect. Post-election shock immediately amped up both the stock market and the box office, but Trump’s Twitter excoriations continue to have similar impact.

Tirades against mainstream media, particularly the New York Times, “Saturday Night Live” and the cast of “Hamilton” raised many questions about the state of Trump’s skin (thin) and how he was choosing to spend his time, but they were a boon for their “victims.” Subscriptions and ratings rose while, even with a call for a boycott by Trump supporters, “Hamilton” remains the hottest ticket in town.

Trump certainly understands the dictum of “no such thing as bad publicity;” he has spent his entire adult life mired in controversy and, occasionally, scandal, yet here he is, about to become president.

Indeed, during Trump’s now famous, and unprecedented, private dressing down of television journalists, he pointed out that he had continually improved their ratings, so why, he wanted to know, did outlets like CNN and MSNBC continue to portray him in such an unflattering light?

They should, he seemed to imply, be grateful.

Throughout his campaign, ratings were the bellwether by which Trump judged his popularity. At the time, many saw this as an inability to shift from his previous job as host of a reality television program to the far more complicated one he sought. Some (myself included) felt it also revealed an imperfect understanding of ratings, which do not often translate into votes — the most popular television shows and films rarely win their industries’ highest awards.

That bit of logic proved to be both wrong (Trump won the election) and right (only one-quarter of registered voters chose him and he lost the popular vote by more than 2.6 million).

So it’s strange that Trump continues to rain down hate on particular institutions when it so clearly benefits them, and in the very manner he continues to measure his own success.

“SNL” Trump stand-in Alec Baldwin, a man with his own checkered history of unfortunate tweets and recorded outbursts, has become a hero to many while people continue to increase their support for all those “failing” members of the mainstream media (including this paper, which has seen a rise in post-election digital subscriptions).

As with “The Colbert Report,” getting stung by Donald Trump is apparently good for business.

Similarly, Trump appears just as blithely unconcerned about the facts (“I read it on the Internet,” is his version of “truthiness”) and just as willing to express himself in incendiary yet often elliptical generalities as Colbert’s big-swinging, often contradictory and unapologetically conservative main character.

Though happy to phone into NBC’s “Today” show earlier this week to accept the honor of being made Time’s Person of the Year (and explain why he hates “SNL”), Trump has thus far refused to give a press conference or make himself available to reporters. Instead he, or someone with access to his phone, continues to communicate with his constituency via Twitter, a platform that precludes both subtlety and specifics.

This has left the country with no alternative but to pore over his tweets like high-schoolers deconstructing Facebook posts and texts from their crush.

And just as many early viewers and guests were uncertain about Colbert’s persona — was it turtle soup or the mock variety? — people are confused.

Is Trump really canceling the new Air Force One or is he “jk” (just kidding)? Does he actually intend to punish those exercising their constitutional right to burn the flag or is it just #drama? And why did he talk to the president of Taiwan or praise the president of Pakistan — is he trying to diss China, make India jealous?

The difference, of course, is that Colbert’s character was clearly and absolutely satire — his show was on Comedy Central; his audience may have opened the show by chanting his name but they spent the rest of it laughing.

Also — and this is important — neither Colbert the character nor Colbert the performer had been elected president of the United States. What either said had no implication much beyond the impact on his own career.

Trump on the other hand is now a power player in national and world politics, where his famous off-the-cuff style is already causing turmoil and suspicion. And while Republicans like Paul Ryan dismiss his Twitter rants as meaningless, the media increasingly sees them as a diversionary tactic; Trump’s “she called me” response to the Taiwan conversation was quickly proven disingenuous — the call had been carefully orchestrated by Bob Dole who was paid, personally and through his law firm, to do it.

The important thing to remember is that the most significant element Trump the reality star shares with Colbert the satirical character is a script. Reality television did not become the industry that it is by relying on actual reality — narratives are carefully crafted, characters are developed, conflicts inflamed or created, certain resolutions encouraged, if not forced. Everything is rigorously marketed and edited for maximum impact, down to the taglines.

“Make America great again” may have been as catchy as “You’re fired,” but it’s much harder to define and even more difficult to implement. It’s funny to rewrite the Declaration of Independence or the Constitution in tweets or imagine the text conversations of great (and/or despicable) world leaders, but while brevity may be the soul of wit, that kind of wit is not what keeps a country united, safe and moving forward.

And great ratings have nothing to do with it.