Did Trump really miss the point of this ‘Curb Your Enthusiasm’ clip?
Larry David in ‘Curb Your Enthusiasm’ Image by Courtesy of HBO
By PJ Grisar February 11, 2020
President Trump has a busy cable news-viewing schedule, so perhaps he can be forgiven for not being up to date on “Curb Your Enthusiasm.”
On Monday night, the president tweeted a (NSFW) clip from the show’s season 10 premiere that aired on January 19. He appeared to miss some crucial context, but that doesn’t mean it won’t play to his base.
In the clip, series creator and star Larry David cuts off a beefy biker and escapes an altercation by donning a Make America Great Again hat. The biker, seeing the headwear, becomes cordial. “Just be more careful next time,” he says before pulling away.
TOUGH GUYS FOR TRUMP! pic.twitter.com/DbjZjGzLWU
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 11, 2020
The president captioned the video “TOUGH GUYS FOR TRUMP.”
While the biker (the likely “tough guy” to whom Trump is referring) deescalates the situation on account of his ostensibly shared politics with David, many Twitter users were quick to point out that after this interaction, David learns that the trademark red hat is a kind of talisman for shirking social commitments among his friend group — no one wants to be seen near him while he wears it. David uses it as a nifty repellent for liberal Los Angelenos, deploying it to cut short a meal with “Everybody Loves Raymond” creator Phil Rosenthal.
But that may not necessarily be reason enough to repel Trump from posting the clip.
In the episode, David presents a dynamic that has proven pretty, pretty useful to the Trump camp: That wealthy coastal liberals (David, Rosenthal) avoid the working-class types (“tough guys”) who embrace Trump. If you check the comments to the tweet from the Right, it seems like the 30 second clip was an inadvertently effective piece of pro-Trump propaganda, showing the esteem in which the so-called “elite” holds Trump supporters.
David has made no mystery of his dislike of the president, but Trump appears to like the “Curb” clip well enough for his purposes. As of press time, the tweet’s still up.
PJ Grisar is the Forward’s culture fellow. He can be reached at [email protected].
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