The Uncanny Parallels Between Donald Trump and Michael Scott
Michael Scott helmed the Scranton branch of Dunder Mifflin for seven seasons of “The Office,” during which he managed to cement his legacy as a bumbling authority figure with a long history of sexual harassment, racist tendencies, a total lack of self-awareness, and a level of competency that made you wonder how he managed to land a managerial position in the first place. When Steve Carell left the show in 2011, he created a void for a character with those qualities, a void that wasn’t filled until Donald Trump burst on the scene four years later in a successful bid to claim the throne Carell had vacated.
The most casual fans of “The Office” can probably think of at least a couple of obvious similarities between Donald Trump and Michael Scott; even if you’ve only been exposed to the series via the grainy YouTube videos and GIFs that are shared liberally online, you’re probably aware of their mutual love for declaring bankruptcy. However, a deeper reading of the series reveals a shocking number of parallels between the personalities of the two men, the people that surround them, and their respective management styles.
It’s probably best to kick off the comparisons with the eerily apropos “Health Care,” which takes place a mere three episodes into the first season. After Michael is tasked with picking a new insurance plan for the office, he delegates the responsibility to Dwight in order to avoid shouldering the blame for any negative repercussions. Dwight, in turn, picks a plan that covers the bare minimum — one that turns out to be incredibly unpopular with Dunder Mifflin employees. Although Michael spends the episode promising the office a big surprise, he ultimately fails to deliver, resulting in a conclusion that leaves nobody satisfied. If you want proof that we’re living in a computer simulation with routinely recycled plotlines, you don’t have to look much farther than this.
Of course, that incident is far from the only time Michael made a promise despite having no intention of or no concrete plan for fulfilling it. There are two particularly notable examples that illustrate Michael’s eagerness to please without the ability to make good on his pledges: season six’s “Shareholder Meeting,” where he proposes a non-existent 45-day plan to save Dunder Mifflin, and the infamous “Scott’s Tots,” which features a broken promise unlike anything ever seen on television — assuming you’re not counting the majority of the promises made by Trump over the course of his campaign.
Michael’s propensity to write verbal checks that almost always bounce may trace back to his thought process, which he sums up nicely in “The Promotion,” when he posits “Sometimes the smartest people don’t think at all.” It shouldn’t be a surprise when people who believe in this credo find themselves hounded by the aforementioned accusations of racism and sexism, which have plagued Trump over the course of his career and Michael over the course of virtually every episode.
“The Duel” gives the audience another candid look into Michael’s thought process, as it includes a rambling attempt to explain his personal philosophy to David Wallace, and a subsequent confessional where he admits “Sometimes I’ll start a sentence, and I don’t even know where it’s going. I just hope I find it along the way.” The pertinence of this statement should be incredibly clear to anyone who has either read a transcript of an interview with Trump, or who has heard him talk for more than seven seconds. Michael’s similar inability to deliver coherent speeches is the focal point of the “Lecture Circuit” episodes, and his reliance on props calls to mind at least a few White House Press briefings.
Michael is also surrounded by characters whose parallels with members of the Trump administration would come off as too on-the-nose if they hadn’t appeared on screen over a decade before he took office. Dwight is Michael’s Mike Pence, an eager to please lackey with an utter inability to understand the concept of homosexuality. Ryan, the tryhard bro with a penchant for poorly planned schemes who’s forced to kowtow to a boss he knows he’s smarter than, is quite appropriately the Paul Ryan of the office. There’s also Jan, Michael’s trophy girlfriend who could be viewed as the Melania to his Trump, although this comparison admittedly works best on a more superficial level.
Many members of Trump’s posse have already found themselves embroiled in an ever-increasing number of scandals, and many of the people Michael surrounded himself with also found themselves in ethically murky water at some point. Creed is clearly Paul Manafort, the man whose role no one entirely understands and who has probably killed some people. Meredith failed to disclose that she traded sex with a client for paper discounts (and Outback Steakhouse coupons), and while Michael Flynn’s relationship with Turkey may have been a bit more platonic, Meredith and Flynn were about as equally transparent with their superiors. There’s even a sketchy Russian connection in “The Injury,” as Dwight claims to know a website where Pam can go to download songs for two cents apiece — although in Trump’s case, it’s more about Russians overpaying for his property.
Even if a character in The Office doesn’t relate directly to a Trump associate, there’s a good chance they’re still analogous to his administration in some way. Toby is the embodiment of the free press, as nothing makes Michael more irate than being subjected to one of HR’s frequent checks on his concept of reality. However, he is far from the only character whose tendency to say “Well… actually” manages to increase Michael’s blood pressure (which he, like Trump, manages to do to everyone else, as seen in “Stress Relief”). When Idris Elba appears as the vice president of Dunder Mifflin towards the end of the fifth season, Michael is forced to accept that he doesn’t wield the absolute power and authority he believed he held, making Elba the equivalent of a federal judge. Jim, of course, is the majority of America, looking at the camera and shrugging as he watches the ever-worsening trainwreck unfolding in front of him. There’s also Oscar, who represents the entire Democratic party.
If you’re craving even more metaphors, there are plenty to be found when comparing the worldviews of Michael and Trump. Both are self-described businessmen (although it’s unlikely Trump has a subscription to Small Businessman Magazine), and considering the copy of “The Art of the Deal” in Michael’s office, it makes sense there are more than a few similarities on the business side. Both men embellish their aptitude in regard to business acumen, but each has shown the flashes of competence required to stumble into the positions of power they hold. Michael’s ability to close a sale was showcased in episodes like “The Client” and “Business Trip,” and he even displayed his willingness to play dirty in “Prince Family Paper” — although Trump has yet to exhibit the existence of a conscience like Michael did in the episode. Finally, this article wouldn’t be complete without mentioning Michael’s momentary Trumpian obsession with China, an obsession that stemmed from an old Newsweek article that he came across — similar to how “Fox and Friends” seems to be the driving force behind Trump’s opinions on public policy.
The reason the two men have so much in common may stem back to the one trait that defines who they are at their core: there’s nothing either wants more than for everyone to like them. Unfortunately, neither can come to terms with the impossibility of such a task, especially when they’re so blissfully unaware of their grating personalities and self-aggrandizing tendencies (one can only imagine how many Dundees Trump would award himself if given the opportunity).
Despite all of these similarities, there is one major operating difference between the two, which is manifested in how they run their respective offices. Michael’s branch of Dunder Mifflin is consistently the highest performing office at the company, while Trump’s ever-growing warehouse fire of an executive branch has more in comparison with the company’s corporate arm.
Michael is able to bluff his way through middle management, but as Trump has shown, it’s not as easy for a CEO to hide from his missteps, or to appease the increasingly dissatisfied stockholders with a vested interest in the health of the country he runs. Trump might be a fan of corporatization (a trait that he and Michael do not share), but sadly, there’s no Sabre to swoop in and save the day, and no Colorado for him to run away to.
