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.
Greece wishes to be part of the eurozone, but it must, of course, go through with the necessary reforms to make this happen.
This government has been informed that a Jewish state has been proclaimed in Palestine, and recognition has been requested by the provisional government thereof. The United States recognizes the provisional government as the de facto authority of the new State of Israel.
Today, everybody is more or less conscious of the total failure of the Cuban revolution to produce wealth, to produce a better standard of living for the Cubans. With the exception of small radical parties, Latin Americans know that it's a brutal dictatorship and the longest in Latin American history.
Nations are born in the hearts of poets, they prosper and die in the hands of politicians.
Powerful government tends to draw into it people with bloated egos, people who think they know more than everyone else and have little hesitance in coercing their fellow man. Or as Nobel Laureate Friedrich Hayek said, "in government, the scum rises to the top".
I once said to my father, when I was a boy, 'Dad we need a third political party.' He said to me, 'I'll settle for a second.'
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