Donald Trump Has Worked Himself Into A Shoot

In pro wrestling terms, a "work" is part of the show, and a "shoot" is not

As many of you know, prior to co-founding Guerrilla Press with EJ, my life over the past 15 to 20 years has primarily been consumed by the world of professional wrestling. In my 20s, I was a bad-guy manager named Rinaldo Piven, and then, in my 30s, I made the transition to a “pro wrestling journalist.”

I’m being asked more and more to write about politics through the lens of professional wrestling, so I am going to do that in today’s piece. But, before I do, I want to take a moment to reflect on this past weekend’s No Kings III rally in Chicago.

I’ve proudly rallied and marched as part of the first two No Kings events in Chicago, and after the second one, I felt compelled to do more, which was a big reason Guerrilla Press exists. With as much anger as there is at the moment in the United States, and rightfully from Chicago, toward the Trump Administration, I am always struck by the overwhelming sense of joy at these events.

Yes, people are pissed. Yes, American democracy is under attack. YES, OUR PRESIDENT IS LITERALLY ASLEEP AT THE WHEEL.

However, Chicago sees brighter days ahead and knows the only way to get to them is through vigilance. It’s through being there for each other, and looking each other in the eye and saying, “I see your pain, I’m in pain, and I’m here for you.”

No Kings III was no different this past Saturday, and, if anything, was only bigger and better.

I’d like to thank Indivisible Chicago for allowing Guerrilla Press the incredible access we were afforded. Our camera was on the media riser filming the event alongside CNN, MSNOW, and News Nation. That’s crazy!!!

Guerrilla Press and I want to step up in the moment to help save America, and being invited in to do that means the world.

And with that, let’s talk about America’s WWE Hall of Famer President, Donald Trump…

I will likely write many articles on the connections between Donald Trump, the McMahons, WWE, and the world of professional wrestling. Rather than bore you with long, long exposition, I’ll refer you to a great book by Lavie Margolin called TrumpMania. It tracks Trump’s relationship with the McMahon family, starting in the late 80s, with WrestleMania IV and V being hosted at Trump Plaza in Atlantic City.

The McMahon family, like the Trump family, is a group of gangsters, and it should not be any surprise that the two see eye-to-eye. They’re ruthless entities that view human beings as commodities, like elephants in the circus. With everything going on at the moment, it can get lost sometimes, but it should HORRIFY everyone that Linda McMahon is the Secretary of Education. Google “Ring Boy Scandal.”

Arguably, the scariest part of the symbiotic relationship between Donald Trump and Vince McMahon is the carnival-style showmanship knowledge that McMahon has passed along to Trump.

McMahon is a monster, and it pains me to give him any laurels, but it is impossible to discount his ability to manipulate people. If there is one thing McMahon is good at, it is getting people to cheer who he wants them to cheer, boo who he wants them to boo, and keep their attention where he wants it. Skills that Trump has weaponized over the past decade and a half in American politics.

Why was Hulk Hogan being a racist so hard for so many to reconcile? Because Vince McMahon had conditioned pro wrestling fans to cheer and love him. Vince knew who Terry Bollea was behind closed doors and was able to package him publicly as someone palatable, wholesome, and anything but who he actually was. Trump does that all day with himself, his cabinet, and his morally bankrupt allies.

This brings me to Iran, a country Trump could not wait to invade and pillage. And with his relative success in Venezuela, why wouldn’t he? He was able to arrest an almost universally detested dictator, Nicolás Maduro, with a very limited operation that did not cost any American lives.

Even better? Rather than allowing the people of Venezuela to elect a new President, Trump installed Maduro’s former Vice President, Delcy Rodríguez, as the new leader. And, with a figurative and possibly literal gun to her head, Rodríguez has capitulated to Trump’s every demand and has begun to see her country pillaged by outside American interests.

It’s gangster politics at its finest, and the $100 million dollars in Venezuelan gold that America just claimed this past week is proof of that.

So, with Iran, Trump saw the potential to replicate that success and began his Vince McMahon-style carnival ballyhooing. Despite his most senior advisors reportedly advising against a war with Iran, which is much more militarily capable than Venezuela, Trump pressed on.

In pro wrestling, when you are lying to someone and know it, that is called a “work.” Most of what you see in a pro wrestling ring is defined as “work,” since the whole sport is theater, and what the wrestlers are saying and doing is largely pre-determined.

When a wrestler comes out and says, “I’m going to beat you up because you ran over my mother and dog in a monster truck,” it’s great theater, but you’re being “worked” if you believe that other wrestler actually committed murder.

By knowing that an operation in Iran would not be easy, and telling the American people otherwise, Trump was attempting to tell a story and work not just America, but the world. He expected Iran, NATO, and everyone else to go along with it. The problem is, they all showed up to his scripted pro wrestling politics show, didn’t like the script, and are refusing to go along with it.

A “shoot” in pro wrestling is when something real happens that isn’t planned. Like when a wrestler actually gets injured, or says something they aren’t supposed to. In those situations, what is intended to be a “work” can become a “shoot” environment.

Yes, we’re having a fake fight, but this guy actually got hurt, so we have to stop the show to deal with it.

Yes, we’re saying scripted lines, but this guy just actually insulted me personally to my face, so I’m going to drop the act and actually beat the shit out of him.

The latter scenario is what those in the pro wrestling business call getting worked into a shoot. When the show stops being a show and devolves into a mess.

That’s what Donald Trump has going on in Iran. What started as a performative show, as he did in Venezuela, has unwound into a situation he no longer has control over. His pro wrestling, Vince McMahon-fueled bravado has led to real-life consequences, and he is scrambling to find a way to book himself out of it.

We can get into “what is booking?” later!