Well, this one isn’t completely political but it’s enough to elicit a sigh from the writer simply due to the fact of how and why Citizen Kane is being seen as relevant in this day and age since comparing the main character of this movie to Donald Trump is by far and large the main point. The acquisition of power, the desire for influence, and the need to dominate all around him has been something that both Kane and Trump have been accused and lauded for and it’s a bit obvious that many people in this country still tend to think that Trump is planning something after his recent defeat in the election to President Joe Biden. The thing about this however is that even if he is, Trump did his term, he sought re-election, and he lost. The snafu that went on after the election didn’t make him look like a gracious loser, that much is certain, but as of now, it would appear that he’s laying low and doing his own thing, while the Democrats still in office are attempting to impeach him for a second time but are finding it quite difficult since there’s really no way to impeach someone that’s no longer the president and has conceded defeat. In the meantime, Biden has continued to pander to his supporters and frustrate those that do not support him but will still recognize the importance of the presidency.
Comparing Trump to Kane is likely something that many people would do without hesitation since many still believe that Trump is power-hungry and wanted to dominate everything in front of him, but the interesting thing about this is that while Kane wanted to start a war to make headlines, Trump’s presidency didn’t see the beginning of a new war. It saw plenty of controversies, which is an easy correlation, but how many of those were fabricated by political enemies and a media that didn’t enjoy Trump’s four years is hard to say. The relevancy of Citizen Kane in this time feels as though it might have a lot to do with half-truths and ill-timed actions and words that a lot of people believe defined the last presidency in very telling ways. Whether a person is a Trump supporter or not there are a good number of similarities that have been drawn, but trying to determine how realistic all of them are is a little difficult since the mainstream media has become a bit of a joke over the last several years, and has been leaning that way for some time if one is to be completely honest since too often it’s been seen that ‘journalists’, who have become little more than talking heads that allow their own bias to show through when delivering the ‘news’ that they believe people need to know. What the mainstream media has become in effect is a talk show where many people, those reporting on both sides of the issue, have come to deliver their opinions that are backed up by facts that neither side wants to acknowledge.
In fact, there are times when the mention of Trump actually fades off as people continue to discuss policies and other matters that have been put into place by Biden and those that were enacted by Trump. Those that are old enough realize that this type of thing has been happening quite often throughout history, but in the past four years, it does feel as though the madness brought on by the election and everything that came with it has brought out the worst in the people of America in a way that is simply unprecedented. Comparing Trump to Kane isn’t entirely off the mark, but there are more than a couple of deviations that don’t really draw the two together as well as people might want. For the last four years, no matter what the POTUS did it kind of felt that people were going to take note and find the flaws in anything that was going on, whereas Kane was actively doing what he could to attain more power and more influence during the movie. Trump was hard to deal with, hard to listen to, and in many ways hard to imagine as president in the first place, but the fact is that he was attempting to do the job to the best of his ability, which is difficult with media hounds nipping at your heels. Kane on the other hand was doing much of the same, but in a few ways was worse than Trump since his standards felt lower in a lot of ways.
Citizen Kane is relevant in some ways today since the desire for and attempts to gain power are bound to happen to anyone at some point. But singling out one individual sounds like a mistake.
Follow Us
