If a novelist had concocted a villain like Trump - a larger-than-life, over-the-top avatar of narcissism, mendacity, ignorance, prejudice, boorishness, demagoguery, and tyrannical impulses, she or he would likely be accused of extreme contrivance and implausibility.
Interpretation
The quote critiques the extreme characteristics attributed to Donald Trump, suggesting that they seem too exaggerated for fiction.
Michiko Kakutani's quote underscores the surreal nature of Donald Trump's persona by likening him to a fictional villain whose traits are so exaggerated and negative that they would be seen as unrealistic if penned by a novelist. It speaks to the power of narrative in both literature and real-life politics, reflecting how some political figures can embody characteristics often reserved for antagonists in stories.
In practice
During a political debate, one might use this quote to highlight the extremes of modern political figures.
With his mendacity and increasingly virulent attacks on immigrants, Muslims, women, the press, the judiciary, the intelligence services, the F.B.I. - any group or institution that he finds threatening or useful as a scapegoat - Mr. Trump is attempting the Orwellian trick of redefining American reality on his own terms.
I'm pretty omnivorous - in fact, I don't think of books in terms of genres. J. K. Rowling's 'Harry Potter' books are no more Y.A. reading, to me, than John le Carre's 'Smiley' novels are spy stories.
For most of us, art is supposed to do something more than simply mirror the confusions of the world.
By their subjugation of the press, the political powers in America have conferred on themselves the greatest of political blessings -- Gyges' ring of invisibility. And they have left the American people more deeply baffled by their own country's politics than any people on earth. Our public realm lies steeped in twilight, and we call that twilight news.'
The United States is squandering international prestige and goodwill and intensifying global anti-American terrorism by unofficially condoning or abetting the Israeli confiscation and colonization of Palestinian territories.
The Voting Rights Act was, and still is, vitally important to the future of democracy in the United States.
Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains sit lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen!
Did the mass of men know the actual selfishness and injustice of their rulers, not a government would stand a year. - The world would foment with revolution.
A man without a vote is man without protection.
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