There’s a real possibility that Donald Trump sees no distinction between the terms “strongman” and “strong man”. At the presidential debate last month, Kamala Harris said world leaders were “laughing” at Trump. In response, Trump brought up his endorsement from the autocratic Hungarian prime minister, Viktor Orbán: “One of the most respected men – they call him a strong man. He’s a tough person, smart.”
Two months before that debate, the Republican national convention played host to a strong man – or, at least, to a man who exemplified a certain 80s-kitsch version of strength. Hulk Hogan, the former standard-bearer of the then World Wrestling Federation (WWF), rose to fame as a human cartoon character, a pumped-up avatar for American determination and supremacy. During his time in the spotlight, Hogan did battle against stereotypes of America’s enemies – the proudly Iranian Iron Sheik, the proudly Russian Nikolai Volkoff and Sgt Slaughter, a former US marine who had turned against his own country to sympathise with Saddam Hussein. On this night, Hulk Hogan was at the RNC to throw his support behind the third presidential campaign of Trump, a figure who has tapped into a potent vein of nostalgia for a mythologised 1980s, an era characterised by muscular action movie heroes, wrestlers, and unapologetic displays of machismo.
