Slavoj Žižek recently made a striking comparison between Donald Trump’s political style and hardcore pornography. According to Žižek, Trump’s rallies and speeches are not about content, but about pure performance, pure excess. “It’s like pornography without intimacy,” Žižek argued—an endless repetition of slogans and insults that function less as politics and more as a kind of obscene spectacle.
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Porn Without Sex, Politics Without Politics
Žižek stressed that hardcore porn strips away intimacy and connection, leaving only mechanical repetition. In the same way, Trump’s politics strip away substance. His constant boasts—“the biggest, the best, the greatest”—and his insults form a loop of empty signifiers. Žižek suggested that this is not genuine political debate but what he calls “the pornography of politics.”
Drones, Tweets, and the “Pornography of War”
Žižek also connected Trump’s style to the logic of drone warfare. Just as a drone operator can kill from thousands of miles away, Žižek noted, Trump can “kill” politically through a tweet—often while eating a cheeseburger. For Žižek, this is part of the same obscene logic: war without war, sex without sex.
Cheese, Banality, and Deadly Consequences
In one of his trademark digressions, Žižek mentioned how more people die each year in “cheese accidents” than from shark attacks. The point, he explained, is that Trump is banal, even ridiculous—like fast food or cheese. But beneath this banality lie deadly consequences.
Climate Denial and the Destruction of the Commons
Žižek criticized Trump’s rejection of climate science and his drive to privatize everything. In Žižek’s view, the real struggle today is to build a new commons—a shared responsibility for ecology, digital truth, and social solidarity. Trump’s pornographic spectacle distracts us from these urgent tasks.
Trump, Death, and the Pornographic Loop
Žižek argued that Trump embodies a refusal to accept finitude. His persona is built on the illusion of endless triumph: the eternal winner, forever young, forever victorious. Žižek compared this to the pornographic loop: endless performance, without conclusion. But, Žižek reminded us, “death always returns.” The show cannot last forever.
Trump as Symptom
For Žižek, Trump is not just an individual but a symptom of our civilization. He represents a society that turns catastrophe into entertainment, politics into pornography, and spectacle into truth. Žižek’s warning is clear: watching Trump may feel entertaining, but the costs will be borne by all of us.
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