It was impossible to watch the PBS series on Hemingway without thinking about Donald Trump. The toxic masculinity, womanizing, mythologizing, and tough guy image–they were all too familiar. If you could wriggle inside Trump’s tiny brain, you would probably find that he sees himself as a Hemingway successor, because, well, why wouldn’t he?
The differences, of course, are more compelling. Hemingway actually lived most of the experiences he wrote about, and left an enduring literary legacy. Trump just makes stuff up and screws people over. His legacy is the January 6 riot that he provoked and then watched on TV.