Shakespeare and Trump

ShakespeareAndTrump

 

 

Revealing the modernity of Shakespeare’s politics,
and the theatricality of Trump’s.

 

 

Read the Introduction

 

 

Available from Temple University Press

 

 

Audio Book Available via Audible

Should we draw an analogy between Shakespeare’s tyrants—Richard III, Julius Caesar, Macbeth, and King Lear—and Donald Trump? In Shakespeare and Trump, Jeffrey Wilson applies literary criticism to real life, examining plot, character, villainy, soliloquy, tragedy, myth, and metaphor to identify the formal features of the Trump phenomenon, and its hidden causes, structure, and meanings.

Wilson approaches his comparison prismatically. He first considers two high-concept (read: far-fetched) Shakespeare adaptations penned by Trump’s former chief political strategist Steve Bannon. He looks at University of Pennsylvania students protesting Trump by taking down a monument to Shakespeare. He reads Trump’s first 100 days in office against Netflix’s House of Cards. Wilson also addresses the summer 2017 Shakespeare in the Park production of Julius Caesar wherein an assassination of a Trump-ian leader caused corporations to withdraw sponsorship.

These stories reveal a surprising—and bizarre—relationship between the provincial English playwright and the billionaire President of the United States, ostensibly a medieval king living in a modern world. The comparison reveals a politics that blends villainy and comedy en route to tragedy.

 

News, Reviews, and Interviews

SEL Studies in English Literature 1500-1900
SEL Studies in English Literature 1500-1900
 
Harvard Gazette
Making Shakespeare Feel Relevant
 
Shakespeare Survey
The Year’s Contribution to Shakespeare Studies
 
Texas Theatre Journal
Texas Theatre Journal


 
The Guardian
To Be Trump, or Not: What Shakespeare Tells Us About the Last Five Years
 
The Guardian
Biden Offers a Message of Resilience in America's ‘Winter of Peril’
 
What’s so appealing about Shakespeare’s Richard III
What’s so appealing about Shakespeare’s Richard III? Jeff Wilson tells us...
 
Don’t trust the government?
Don’t trust the government? The Bard didn’t either… Harvard scholar Jeff Wilson explains why there...
The presidency of a former reality TV host might seem like a quintessentially modern farce
The presidency of a former reality TV host might seem like a quintessentially modern farce...

The Final Weekend of the Trump White House

 
The Nation
Shakespeare’s Contentious Conversation With America

 
The Times
While Melania packs her designer bags, Trump rants in a world of his own
 

Trump's Final Days of Rage and Denial
 
British Theatre Guide
British Theatre Guide
 
Inside Higher Ed
So Much Pith
 
TLS
Shax Americana: Donald Trump’s Shakespeare
 

Shakespeare and Trump

 

Jeffrey Wilson ('12) on Shakespeare and Trump
 

5 Shakespeare Scholars on the Past, Present, and Future of Theater Amid COVID-19
Harvard College Writing Center
Harvard College Writing Center
 

Is Donald Trump a Tyrant? Yes and no — Aristotle and Euripides would disagree

10 Scenes from Shakespeare that Fit Donald Trump’s Presidency — Streaming Now

Social Distancing with Shakespeare
 

Which of Shakespeare’s Tragic Heroes is Donald Trump?
 
Choice
Choice

 

Shakespeare and Contemporary Theory 
 
   

 

 

“‘What means that trump?’ Jeffrey Wilson sounds the Shakespearean resonances of the presidency, from controversial productions to what he terms ‘politicitation.’ Animated by a frank, searching voice, Wilson’s book energetically chronicles our dramatic moment—and how it might end.”

—Scott Newstok, author of How to Think Like Shakespeare:
Lessons from a Renaissance Education

 

“As Wilson illustrates, the political drama that has unfolded since 2016 is tragedy, comedy, and history rolled into one—and the consequence, in part, of a failure in the humanities to instill the moral and civic lessons that bind us. Serving as a corrective, this book reveals how understanding our present moment through a Shakespearean lens offers the possibility of healing and redemption—not only for the bitter political divide among Americans but also for the American democratic experiment itself.”

—Asha Rangappa, Senior Lecturer at the Jackson Institute for
Global Affairs, Yale University

 

 

Table of Contents

Preface and Acknowledgments

Introduction
1. Bannon’s Shakespeare
2. Public Shakespeare: The Bard in the 2016 American Presidential Elections
3. Cultural Affirmative Action at Penn: Protesting Trump by Protesting Shakespeare
4. Villainy and Complicity in Drama, Television, and Politics: Shakespeare’s Richard III, House of Cards, and the Trump Administration
5. Twenty Questions about the Public Theater’s Trump-Themed Julius Caesar
Conclusion

Notes
Index

Bibliography

Performance

 

Orange-Face Shakespeare: Modern dress productions, usually serious and tragic, costuming Shakespearean characters as Trump to lodge a political critique.

The Taming of the Shrew, dir. Phyllida Lloyd (New York, NY: Public Theater, 2015). See Laura Collins-Hughes, “Is ‘Shrew’ Worth Taming? Female Directors Keep Trying,” New York Times(June 16, 2016).

Henry VI, Parts 2 and 3, dir. Barbara Gaines (Chicago, IL: Chicago Shakespeare Theater, 2016). See Chris Jones, “‘Civil Strife’ Concludes Barbara Gaines’ Epic Comment on Conflict,” Chicago Tribune (Sept. 27, 2016).

Coriolanus, dir. Michael Sexton (New York, NY: Barrow Street Theatre, 2016). See Charles Isherwood, “In 'Coriolanus,' a Politician for a Campaign Season,” New York Times (Nov. 1, 2016).

Julius Caesar, dir. Oskar Eustis (New York, NY: The Public Theater, 2017). See Jesse Green, “Can Trump Survive in Caesar's Palace?” New York Times (June 9, 2017).

Julius Caesar, dir. Nicholas Hytner (London: Bridge Theatre, 2018). See “Nicholas Hytner on Julius Caesar,” The Guardian (Jan. 25, 2018).

Macbeth, dir. Carl Cofield (New York, NY: The Classical Theatre of Harlem, 2016). See Raven Snook, Time Out (n.d.).

The Merchant of Venice, dir. Diana Green (Palisades, NY: Palisades Presbyterian Church, 2018). See Eric Menton, “Seeking Heroes, We Get Laughter,” Shakespeareances (March 3, 2018).

ShakesTrump Travesties: Shakespearean theatrical adaptations, usually irreverent satires, often low-budget one-person shows, that send up the chaos and absurdity of Trump’s reign by patterning it onto one of Shakespeare’s texts.

Irwin Appel (wr.) and Carlos Morton (dir.), Trumpus Caesar (University of California Santa Barbara: Studio Theater, 2017). See “‘Trumpus Caesar’ Feeds Politic-Based Angst with Art,” Santa Barbara Independent (Aug. 16, 2017).

Peter Schumann, Out-Of-Joint Hamlet (Glover, VT: Paper Mache Cathedral, 2018). See Greg Cook, “Bread & Puppet’s ‘Out-Of-Joint Hamlet’ Unearths The Play’s Strongmen To Reframe Shakespeare For The Trump Era,” Wonderland (June 27, 2018).

David Carl, Trump Lear, dir. Michole Biancosino (New York, NY: Under St. Marks Theater, 2018). See Ronan Hatfull, “Trump Lear – Edfringe Review,” The 730 Review (Aug. 19, 2019).

Emily Carding, Richard III (A One Woman Show) (Touring: Brite Theater, 2015-18).

Pamela Allen Brown and Peter A. Parolin, Richard III Pop-Up at SAA (Denver, CO: Shakespeare Association of America, 2020). [Cancelled]

Shaxtivism: Disruptive political demonstrations, including guerrilla performances, leveraging Shakespeare and his cultural cachet to spur audiences to resistance.

Jeff Charis-Carlson, “Protesters Turn to Shakespeare to Explain Trump,” Iowa City Press-Citizen (Jan. 13, 2017).

Heather James, “Letter from President Heather James, February 2017.”

“Presidential Speech by Heather James, Shakespeare Association of America,” (Atlanta, GE: 45th Annual Meeting of the Shakespeare Association of America, Apr 7, 2017).

NowThis Politics, “Steve Bannon’s Rap Musical,” Table Read (April 2017).

“Really!?! with Seth and Amy: Julius Caesar Protests,” Late Night with Seth Myers (June 21, 2017). See Melissa Locker, “Seth Meyers and Amy Poehler Reunite for a Blistering Takedown of Pro-Trump Protesters,” Time (June 22, 2017).

Speech After A Winter’s Tale, dir. Blanche McIntyre (London: Shakespeare’s Globe, July 13, 2018).

Bridge Repertory Theater, "Midterm SHAKE Up: A Night of Shakespeare's Best Political Scenes," dir. Damon Krometis (Cambridge, MA: Nov. 1-6, 2018).

 

Media

Shakes-Toons: Shakespeare-inflected political cartoons depicting storylines from the Trump saga in terms of the plays’ well-known plots, characters, and dialogue.

“Et tu, Trump? Political cartoons inspired by Shakespeare – in pictures,” The Guardian (March 8, 2017).

Jason Adam Katzenstein, “Et tu, Cohen?” The New Yorker (July 23, 2018).

Shakes-Memes: Brief clips of videos, images, quotes, or witticisms spread on the internet, with variations, using Shakespeare to comment on modern cultural phenomena, or vice versa.

Grace Ioppolo (@ProfShakespeare), “Shakespeare on Donald Trump hinting that he will run for US president (http://yhoo.it/bhP8eu): 'What means that trump?' (Timon of Athens),” Twitter Post (Oct. 10, 2010).

Jeremy Newberger (@jeremynewberger), “Mixing up the Shakespeare in the Park protest and AG Rod Rosenstein stories Trump accidentally fires Rosencrantz and Guildenstern,” Twitter Post (June 16, 2017).

Karen DenBleyker (@kdneedles), “If this were played upon a stage now, I could condemn it as an improbable fiction,” Twitter Post (July 2, 2017).

Gary Legum (@GaryLegum), “"This new trend" says someone who has apparently never read ‘Julius Caesar’,” Twitter Post (Sept. 1, 2018).

Acyn Torabi (@Acyn), “Anononamus,” Twitter Post (Sept. 7, 2018).

Bardfilm (@bardfilm), “I just thought of a compromise that would stop the government shutdown! Some man or other must PRESENT Wall…” Twitter Post (Jan. 9, 2019).

William Shakespeare (@Shakespeare), “Yes, the King’s disgraced brother just killed himself. In prison. By drowning himself in a butt of Malmsey. Nothing to see here, move along,” Twitter Post (Aug. 10, 2019).

Dan Rather (@DanRather), “A Sharpie! a Sharpie! my kingdom for a Sharpie!” Twitter Post (Sept. 5, 2019).

William Shakespeare (@Shakespeare), “Antonio, Duke of Milan, is currently trying to move his brother Prospero’s storm using a Sharpie pen,” Twitter Post (Sept. 5, 2019).

Asha Rangappa, “So many good explainers out there on why the Trump/Biden situations are different (including that there is no evidence of underlying wrongdoing by Biden's son). But I broke down the basics last night. (Can we make #HoistedByHisOwnPetard tr

BardBlogs: Online lists and blog posts, usually witty and light-hearted, that map some aspect of the news onto quotes or characters from the plays.

Emily Uecker, “‘Hell is empty and all the devils are here’: A Shakespearean Guide to the 2016 Republican Primary,” McSweeneys (August 6, 2015).

Emily Uecker, “‘The crown will find an heir’: A Shakespearean Guide to the 2016 Democratic Primary,” McSweeneys (Oct. 13, 2016).

Katy Weniger, “The 2016 GOP Presidential Candidates: As Told By Shakespeare,” Odyssey(Jan. 25, 2016).

Tom Blunt, “The Bard’s Ballot: 2016 Candidates as Shakespeare Characters,” Signature (April 18, 2016).

Michael Judge, “Shakespeare on Our ‘Scurvy Politicians’,” The Wall Street Journal (Sept. 20, 2016).

César Chelala, “Donald Trump and William Shakespeare,” The Globalist (Oct. 13, 2019).

Chad Pergram, “How impeachment hearings can be best understood using Shakespeare,” Fox News (Nov. 16, 2019).

Bardcasts: Audio interviews, discussions, and podcasts for a general audience bringing Shakespearean performers and scholars into conversation with current events—most notably Isaac Butler’s Lend Me Your Ears on Slate.

Virginia Marshall and Meghna Chakrabarti, “What Would Shakespeare Say About The 2016 Election Cycle?” WBUR (Nov. 2, 2016).

Neema Parvini, “Shakespeare and Trump with Jeffrey R. Wilson,” Shakespeare and Contemporary Theory34 (Nov. 25, 2016).

Matthew Clayfield, “UK theatre maverick Declan Donnellan on why putting Shakespeare on stage is not just important – it's urgent,” Time Out (Jan. 6, 2017).

Kelsey Perrett, “Shakespeare for the Masses’ ‘King John’ draws comparisons to 2016 election,” MV Times(Jan. 10, 2017).

Robert Kuttner, “Q&A: A Tale Told by an Idiot: Shakespeare and Trump,” The American Prospect (Feb. 6, 2017).

Reduced Shakespeare Company, “Episode 532: Shakespeare & Trump,” RSC Podcasts (Feb. 20, 2017).

Isaac Butler, Lend Me Your Ears, on Slate (May 8, 2017).

Anita Diamant, “Who Will Believe Thee? Shakespeare's 'Measure For Measure' On Weinstein, Trump And Justice,” WBUR (Oct. 16, 2017).

Virginia Heffernan, “The Psychic Tyranny of Shakespeare's Tyrants,” Trumpcast, on Slate (Mayy 11, 2018).

“Errol Morris on Steve Bannon’s Dangerous ‘Dharma’,” Boston Review (Aug. 24, 2018).

“What can Shakespeare teach us about Donald Trump?” featuring Stephen Greenblatt at the Stratford Festival, CBC Radio (Sept. 11, 2018).

Ethan Alter, “Kenneth Branagh explains the Shakespearean tragedy of the Trump era,” Yahoo! Finance(May 10, 2019).

Saralyn Cruickshank, “Shakespeare and modern political theater,” Johns Hopkins University Hub (Oct. 21, 2019).

Politicitation: Political commentators, usually well-educated but not specialists in literature, alluding to Shakespeare off-the-cuff to boost the power and prestige of their arguments.

Joyce Carol Oates (@JoyceCarolOates), “Like Shakespeare's Falstaff, D. Trump is the inspiration of great wit in others--a rare comic talent, & to be prized,” Twitter Post (Aug. 25, 2013).

Amanda Gordon, “Shakespeare Has Words for Trump, Dr. Who Actor Tennant Says,” Bloomberg (April 4, 2016).

Simon Schama (@simon_schama), “‘I alone’ says Donald Trump. ‘I am myself alone’ says Shakespeare's Richard III. I alone profoundly inimical to the American idea since 1776,” Twitter Post (July 22, 2016).

Bill Kristol, “Kristol Clear #109,” The Weekly Standard (April 24, 2016).

Melena Ryzik, “Meryl Streep Does a Number on Donald Trump at Public Theater’s Gala,” New York Times(June 7, 2016).

“Bryan Cranston: Trump is like a ‘Shakespearean character’,” BBC Newsnight (Oct. 31, 2016).

Marcus Gilmer, “Trump’s Cabinet Meeting was a Lot Like the Opening of ‘King Lear’,” Mashable (June 12, 2017).

James Lewis, “Shakespeare Would Defend Trump,” American Thinker (June 19, 2017).

Tyler Cowen, “Forget Caesar. Shakespeare Has Another Role for Trump,” Bloomberg (June 20, 2017).

Stephen Colbert, “Was That Tweet from Trump or Shakespeare?” The Late Show with Stephen Colbert (July 20, 2017).

Brandon Carter, “Email prankster posed as White House officials in emails to Scaramucci, others,” The Hill (July 31, 2017).

Jake Tapper, “White House Officials Tricked by Email Prankster,” CNN (August 1, 2017).

Paula Marantz, “The Bard Can Help Us Understand Politics’ Sound and Fury,” The Wall Street Journal(Sept. 8, 2017).

Anderson Cooper 360° (@AC360), “‘It’s like alt-right Shakespeare’ Journalist @JoshuaGreen on the prospect of former adviser Steve Bannon returning to the White House and the good graces of President Trump,” Twitter Post (April 11, 2018).

Donna Brazile (@donnabrazile), “I used to think than this whole Trump administration drama was Shakespearean. But in Shakespeare, the fools are wise,” Twitter Post (May 5, 2018).

Davis Richardson, “Rudy Giuliani Likens Michael Cohen to Shakespeare Machiavellians Iago and Brutus,” Observer (July 30, 2018).

“Fox guest: Donald Trump is "like King Lear, a man more sinned against than sinning,” Media Matters(August 13, 2018).

Donna Brazile (@donnabrazile), “This is starting to feel like the final act of a Shakespeare play... and I don’t think it’s going to end with a wedding,” Twitter Post (Aug. 22, 2018).

Michael Stevenson, “British Writer Pens The Best Description Of Trump I’ve Read,” The HOBBLEDEHOY (March 8, 2019).

Dan Rather (@DanRather), “Reporting on whether one should comply with a Congressional subpoena should not be framed like a Hamlet soliloquy…” Twitter Post (May 26, 2019).

Joyce Carol Oates (@JoyceCarolOates), “hoping that if US military leaders are commanded into action by an illegitimate president…” Twitter Post (Oct. 7, 2019).

Marsha Blackburn, “A 3-year, coordinated effort has been underway to remove @realDonaldTrump from office. Jesus warned us — watch out for the lawyers,” Twitter Post (Nov. 10, 2019).

Alex Woodward, “Michael Cohen: Jailed ex-Trump lawyer says he 'sold his soul' and quotes Othello as he pleads for clemency,” The Independent (Dec. 12, 2019).

Asha Rangappa (@AshaRangappa_), “Hey @DevinNunes — does your dim attorney realize he is quoting, as a representation of YOU, one of the most treacherous villains in Shakespeare’s canon…” Twitter Post (Jan. 31, 2020).

Louis Chilton, "Robert De Niro slams Trump associates: ‘They’re around a crazy person and they’re not doing anything. This is like Shakespeare’," Independent (May 7, 2020).

Josh Kovensky, "New Revelations About Stone And Wikileaks Cast Mueller As ‘Hamlet’," Talking Points Memo (June 22, 2020).

Maureen Dowd, "Double, Double, Trump’s Toil, Our Trouble," New York Times (Aug. 1, 2020).

Andrew Sullivan, "Yes, This Is The Face Of A Tyrant," The Weekly Dish (

Brit Hume, "With apologies to Shakespeare, it will be said of Trump that nothing in his presidency became him less than the leaving of it," Twitter Post (Dec. 26, 2020).

Dana Milbank, "Trump, in his final days, goes full King Lear," Washington Post (Dec. 28, 2020).

Writing

The Really Bad Quartos: Similar to the Shakes-Trump Travesties, satirical creative writing that tells Shakespearean stories in Trumpian language or vice versa.

Aryeh Cohen-Wade, “Donald Trump Performs Shakespeare’s Soliloquies,” The New Yorker (April 6, 2016).

Jaime Fuller, “Shakespeare’s Latest Tragedy: The 2016 Election,” Mtv.com (April 25, 2016).

T. Campbell, “Shakespeare’s Trump I, Act I, Scene I,” Medium (Feb 12, 2017).

Nick Shea, Donald Trump vs. William Shakespeare: A Battle of Wits (2018).

Charlie Ovink, “Shakespeare Edited for the Trump Era,” McSweeneys (Feb. 28, 2017).

Jim Marino (Doctor Cleveland), “I am Part of the Resistance Inside King Lear’s Court,” Dag Blog (Sept. 5, 2018).

Tom McBride, The Donald & The Bard: Shakespeare Goes On Cable News (CreateSpace Independent Publishing, 2018).

Robert Hornback, The Trump Lexicon (Nonesuch, 2018).

Ian Doescher and Jacopo della Quercia, MacTrump (Philadelphia: Quirk, 2019).

AJ Smith, By the Thumbings of a Prick: The Tweets of Donald Trump as Shakespearean Sonnets (Somerville, NJ: This is Livin’, 2019).

Martin Rowson, "Shakespearean Tragedy," Culture Matters (Nov. 17, 2020).

Scholarly Conference Papers and Journal Articles at the Intersection of Shakespeare and Trump: Which Always Have Colons in Their Titles: Talks by academics for academics, usually leveraging a specialist’s historical knowledge to unfurl a new wrinkle in the Shakespeare-and-Trump discourse.

Cass Morris, “‘To try eloquence, now ‘tis time’: Virtues and Vices of Rhetoric,” American Shakespeare Center (Jan. 17, 2017).

Christina Dennehy, “‘I Find the People Strangely Fascinated’: Performing King John in the Trump Era,” Blackfriars’s Conference (Staunton, VA: American Shakespeare Center, Oct. 2017).

Gabriel Rieger, “‘Indeed, it is a strange-disposed time’: Julius Caesar, A Game at Chess, and the Politics of Staging,” Ohio Valley Shakespeare Conference (Berea, OH: Baldwin Wallace University, Oct. 2017); Selected Papers of the Ohio Valley Shakespeare Conference 10 (2019): 53-63.

Anne-Marie Walkowicz, “Shakespeare’s Oppositional Voices: Politics, Power, and Citizenship in Julius Caesar Both Then and Now,” Ohio Valley Shakespeare Conference (Berea, OH: Baldwin Wallace University, Oct. 2017).

Kathryn T. Burt, “‘When Caesar says ‘Do this,’ it is perform’d’: Political Metadrama in Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar and Donald Trump’s Presidential Campaign,” oral presentation (Rock Hill, SC: Winthrop University, 2018).

Susan Rowland, “The Demonic and Narcissistic Power of the Media in Shakespeare's Macbeth,” in A Clear and Present Danger: Narcissim in the Era of President Trump, ed. Leonard Cruz and Steven Buser (Asheville: Chiron, 2017): 229-40.

Ronnie Mulryne, “King Lear: Perception and the Price of Silence,” Modern Believing 58.2 (2017): 111-22.

Ameer Sohrawardy, “Julius Caesar and the 2016 Presidential Election,” English Journal 107.4 (2018): 64-66.

Yo Jin Ko, “Donald Trump: Shakespeare’s Lord of Misrule,” in Trump and Political Philosophy: Leadership, Statesmanship, and Tyranny, ed. Angel Jaramillo Torres and Marc Benjamin Sable (New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan, 2018): 149-62.

Paul Hamilton, “Trump, Macbeth, and Complicity in the State of Emergency,” British Shakespeare Association Annual Convention (Belfast, Northern Ireland: Queens University Belfast, June 2018).

David Ruiter, “Shakespeare and Theatre at the Civic Intersection,” New Places: Shakespeare and Civic Creativity, ed. Paul Edmondson and Ewan Fernie (London: Bloomsbury, 2018): 235-49.

Dan Venning, “Richard III in the Era of Trump,” PAJ: A Journal of Performance and Art 40.2 (2018): 1-12.

Stephen Purcell, “Shakespeare Performances in England, 2017,” Shakespeare Survey 71 (2018): 305-43.

Daniel Spector, “Shakespeare Studies and Performance: Free Speech and Identity Politics,” British Shakespeare Association Annual Convention (Belfast, Northern Ireland: Queens University Belfast, June 2018).

Molly Beth Seremet, “‘This is and is Not Cressida’: Resisting Anthropocentrism in a Shakespeare of Things,” Early Modern Culture 13 (2018): 138-48.

Jeffrey Jerome Cohen, “Response: In the Storm,” Early Modern Culture 13 (2018): 149-51.

Courtney Lehmann, “The Trump Effect: Exceptionalism, Global Capitalism, and the War on Women in Early Twenty-first-century Films of King Lear,” in Shakespeare on Screen: King Lear, ed. Victoria Bladen, Sarah Hatchuel, and Nathalie Vienne-Guerrin (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2019): 171-84.

Public Shakespeare: Essays by Shakespeare scholars for public venues bringing the plays into discussion with current events.

Andrew Cutrofello, “Shakespeare and Trump: What’s in a Name?” Public Seminar (December 15, 2015).

Gary Schmidgall, “What Would Shakespeare Make of Trump?” The Chronicle Review (Feb. 7, 2016).

Brian Leiter, “Shakespeare on Trump: Money Made the Man,” The Huffington Post (Feb 29, 2016).

Charles McNulty, “The Theater of Trump: What Shakespeare can teach us about the Donald,” Los Angeles Times (May 26, 2016).

Paul Hamilton, “Trumping Shakespeare: Donald Trump, Boris Johnson, and the Rise of the Clown Politician,” Kingston Shakespeare Seminar (July 11, 2016).

Peter C. Herman, “Shakespeare’s ‘Macbeth,’ Donald Trump, and the Republican Party,” Times of San Diego (Aug. 7, 2016).

Stephen Greenblatt, “Shakespeare Explains the 2016 Election,” New York Times Sunday Review (Oct. 8, 2016).

Sean Keilen, “Anger in Politics: From Shakespeare to Donald Trump,” UCSC Institute for Humanities Research (Santa Cruz, CA: Kuumbwa Jazz Center, Oct. 18, 2016). See Scott Rappaport, “Anger in Politics: From Shakespeare to Donald Trump,” UC Santa Cruz News Center (Sept. 22, 2016).

Noah Millman, “The Age of Trump, as Explained by Shakespeare,” The Week (Nov. 2, 2016).

Eric Minton, “Locker Room Talk and Sexual Assault: To Whom Should I Complain?” Shakespeareances (Nov. 6, 2016).

Rex Weiner, “Titus in Space,” The Paris Review (Nov. 29, 2016).

Steve Mentz, “He Must See Ghosts: Richard III, Trump, and the Future,” Hypocrite Reader 70 (Dec. 2016).

Michael Billington, “Forget Julius Caesar – Trump is more like Richard III, Shakespeare’s satanic joker,” The Guardian (June 12, 2017).

Ross Douthat, “The Trumpiest Roman of Them All,” New York Times (June 14, 2017).

Daniel Pollack-Pelzner, “Behold, Steve Bannon’s Hip Hop Shakespeare Rewrite,” New York Times (Dec. 17, 2016).

Peter Conrad, Shakespeare: The Theatre of Our World (Head of Zeus, 2018), excerpted in “Shakespeare in the Age of Brexit and Trump: The Play’s Still the Thing,” The Observer (Sept. 29, 2018).

“Q&A: A Tale Told by an Idiot: Shakespeare and Trump,” Prospect (Feb. 6, 2017).

Rhodri Lewis, “Shakespeare and the American Oligarchy,” Times Literary Supplement (Jan. 23, 2017).

Gavin Paul, “Reading King Lear in the Age of Trump,” Medium (June 16, 2017).

Robert Cooper, “Shakespeare’s Politics,” The American Interest 13.1 (June 20, 2017).

Michael Hiltzik, “No mercy in him: Reading Shakespeare's 'Coriolanus' in the age of Trump,” Los Angeles Times (Aug. 23, 2017).

Paula Marantz, “The Bard Can Help Us Understand Politics’ Sound and Fury,” The Wall Street Journal(Sept. 8, 2017).

Ambereen Dadabhoy, “Why We Need a Trump Shakespeare,” What Can a Liberal Arts Education Offer in the Age of Trump (Claremont, CA: Harvey Mudd College, Sept. 26, 2017).

Stephen Greenblatt, Tyrant: Shakespeare on Politics (New York, NY: Norton, 2018).

William Germano, https://www.chronicle.com/blogs/linguafranca/2018/08/02/benedict-arnold-...

Eliot A. Cohen, “How This Will End,” The Atlantic (Aug. 24, 2018).

Peter C. Herman, “Shakespeare, Kavanaugh and an Ancient Theme of Sexual Hypocrisy,” Times of San Diego (Sept. 24, 2018).

Colin Dray, “Making Troy Great Again: On Shakespeare's 'Troilus and Cressida' and Trump's Ugly Political Rhetoric,” Pop Matters (Oct. 15, 2018).

Bret Stephens, “When Fiction Most Becomes Trump,” New York Times (Dec. 28, 2018).

Robin Bates, “Which Shakespeare Character is Trump?” Better Living Through Beowulf (Jan. 2, 2019).

Tom Rogan, “Shakespeare Twitter is Wrong: Trump isn't Macbeth and America isn't Sinking,” The Washington Examiner (Jan. 22, 2019).

Jennifer Finney Boylan, “The Madness of King Donald,” New York Times (Feb. 20, 2019).

Peter C. Herman, “Lessons from Shakespeare for the Trump White House,” Times of San Diego (March 2, 2019).

Kevin D. Williamson, “Springtime of Their Discontent,” National Review (March 26, 2019).

Daniel Pollack-Pelzner, “In “Gary: A Sequel to Titus Andronicus,” Taylor Mac Takes on Shakespeare—and Trump,” The New Yorker (April 20, 2019).

Gregg Opelka, “Would Shakespeare Impeach Trump?” Wall Street Journal (Sept. 27, 2019).

Stephen Marche, “The Shakespearean Tragedy that Resembles Trump’s Presidency Almost Too Well,” The World Post (Oct. 10, 2019).

Liesl Schillinger, “High Comedy and Misdemeanors: The Shakespearean Drama at the Heart of Impeachment,” Lit Hub (Dec. 17, 2019).

Kevin J. Wetmore Jr., “Dramatis Personae,” LMU Magazine (Dec. 17, 2019).

James Shapiro, Shakespeare in a Divided America (New York: Penguin, 2020).

James Shapiro, “Shakespeare and the Culture Wars: On the Movement for Color-Blind Casting,” Literary Hub (March 12, 2020).

James Shapiro, "The Shakespeare Play That Presaged the Trump Administration’s Response to the Coronavirus Pandemic,” The New Yorker (April 8, 2020).

Raouf Halaby, "Character Comparison: What Would Shakespeare, Creator of King Lear, Think of Donald Trump?" Northwest Arkansas Democrat Gazette (April 26, 2020).

Michael Judge, "Sound and Fury: Seeing the Trump-Biden Contest Through the Eyes of Macbeth," The Wire (July 20, 2020).

William E. Ellis, "Only Shakespeare could do justice to the last four years in Washington, D.C." Lexington Herald Leader (Dec. 23, 2020).