Trump, il re del carnevale e il buffone incoronato = Trump, the King of Carnival and the Crowned Fool

Abstract

This article examines Donald Trump as a hybrid figure who merges two historically intertwined roles: the King and the Fool. Through an interdisciplinary analysis that draws on carnival theory, the history of satire, pop-cultural archetypes, and contemporary political communication, the essay argues that Trump operates simultaneously as sovereign and jester, rendering traditional satirical critique ineffective. His rise is interpreted as the culmination of a cultural shift in which comedy, trolling, and digital meme culture reshape political authority. From medieval misrule to the alt-right's online irony, from the malign clown archetype in American popular culture to the trickster figure theorized by anthropology and psychology, the article traces how laughter has become a potent but ambivalent political force. Trump's performances - part stand-up routine, part authoritarian spectacle - create a closed circuit of ridicule in which he channels mockery directed at him and redirects it toward opponents, neutralizing satire as a tool of dissent. The essay also explores the limits of comic resistance, comparing Trump's self-parodic persona with past attempts to deflate authoritarian power through humor, from Chaplin to Brecht. Ultimately, Trump's dual embodiment of ruler and buffoon reveals a structural vulnerability in democratic discourse: when political reality adopts the logic of carnival, laughter no longer destabilizes power but may instead reinforce it.