Tag Archives: Confidence Man

Melville Would Have Understood Trump

By Robin Bates | Published: July 31, 2023

Melville foresaw Trump in “Confidence Man.”

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Which Literary Conman Is Trump?

By Robin Bates | Published: September 15, 2019

To understand Trump as conman, I compare him to the King and the Duke, Mac the Knife, Melville’s Confidence Man, Satan & Iago.

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How I Make Literary Connections

By Robin Bates | Published: January 30, 2019

Wednesday A friend the other day asked where my ideas come from, especially when I apply a passage from one century to incidents in another. Yesterday, for instance, I said that Trump confidant Roger Stone reminded me of a passage in Herman Melville’s Confidence Man. So how did that enter my head? To answer, let […]

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How Deep Is Roger Stone’s Act?

By Robin Bates | Published: January 29, 2019

Tuesday What are we to make of longtime Trump confidant Roger Stone’s flamboyant behavior following his arrest by Special Counselor Robert Mueller for lying to Congress about his contacts with Wikileaks? I think back to a passage from Herman Melville’s The Confidence Man that I applied to Trump during the campaign but which applies equally […]

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2016’s Top Story–Trump, Trump, Trump

By Robin Bates | Published: December 29, 2016

Looking back of 2016, I choose three posts that stood out to me, all dealing with Trump. One compares him to Satan inspiring the invasion of Earth by Sin and Death in “Paradise Lost.” The other two compare him to Herman Melville’s “Confidence Man” and to the narrator’s son in the Raymond Carver short story “Why, Honey?”

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Trump as Melville’s Confidence Man

By Robin Bates | Published: August 15, 2016

Why, in the words of Nicholas Kristof, do we think of Hillary as “a slippery, compulsive liar” and Donald Trump as “a gutsy truth-teller.” Herman Melville gives us a compelling explanation in “The Confidence Man.”

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Political Consultants Should Read Lit

By Robin Bates | Published: May 4, 2015

Which literary works would you recommend to a political consultant to stay in touch with his or her soul and avoid becoming lost in the dark side? How about Hawthorne, Melville, Shakespeare, Pinter, and Terrence McNally?

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