Trump’s Ghostwriter Speaks Out: ‘I Found Myself Possessed by the Voice of Trump’
They called him the “Voice of Trump.”
In a confessional entitled “I was a Donald Trump ghostwriter. Here’s what I learned about the Donald — and his fans, Adam Eisenstat has described his tenure as a ghostwriter whose words helped to shape the narrative and popular image of the titanic icon we call Trump. The piece, originally published in Vox, chronicles his immersion in the language, attitude, and ideology of The Donald, which he absorbed and then helped to define.
Eisenstat recounts how after long days immersing himself in Trump’s diction and ethos via press clippings and radio interviews, one day it all came into focus:
I found myself possessed by the voice of Trump: that in your face, balls-to-the-wall style, overflowing with turbo confidence and showmanship. My boss said I had found the voice, and my co-workers agreed. I became known around the office as the Voice of Trump.
He describes how Trump had harnessed his media reach to “inhabit the dreams of masses,” styling himself into a figure onto whom people could project their hopes and aspirations:
Trump had somehow tapped into a fundamental yearning people have: the need for something they can call their own, a way to rise above the relentless challenges of grubby survival. The budding entrepreneurs who sought his counsel wanted to control their own destinies. To these people, Trump personified everything they aspired to, and many believed that a version of his life — or at least the opportunity to enjoy many of the things he valued — was a realistic possibility, if only they had the knowledge or training and a chance to prove themselves.
He also notes how the voice that he learned to channel now pumps out through the airwaves of the world on an hourly basis:
Hearing Trump repeat the same lines over and over — “Make America Great Again,” “I’m gonna build a fantastic wall, and Mexico’s gonna pay for it” — I see that his tactics haven’t changed since I immersed myself in his voice 10 years ago. He’s still hawking success, and certainty, and disdain for losers. Only this time he’s on a bigger stage, with a bigger audience, and the stakes are much bigger.
[h/t Vox]
[image via Gage Skidmore]
