5 Disney Villains Who Are Literally Donald Trump | The Odyssey Online
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Politics and Activism

5 Disney Villains Who Are Literally Donald Trump

Their policies. Their personalities. These villains resemble the president more than we'd like.

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5 Disney Villains Who Are Literally Donald Trump
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I almost feel guilty, associating these brilliantly written, wonderfully crafted characters with an exaggerating simpleton who's fumbled his way into the White House on the back of regurgitated contempt and the pseudo-honesty of stream-of-consciousness speech giving. Almost.

1. Judge Claude Frollo - The Hunchback of Notre Dame

Like many classic Disney villains and the Commander-in-Chief, Quasimodo's captor and the scourge of Paris ascended to power by accusing a whole minority community, the gypsies, of being responsible for the crime and disorder of the city. He engages in class warfare against them, calling for their arrests on-site, and labeling their apologists traitors. Frollo thinks he's cleaning up the city, doing God's work, even though he murders Quasimodo's mother by trampling her on the steps of a cathedral, and becomes infatuated with a gypsy and will "burn down all of Paris" to find her. Hypocritical, self-righteous, and self-obsessed. The perfect candidate for 2020.

2. Prince John - Robin Hood

One of the most criminally underrated Disney films ever, Robin Hood illustrates class inequality brilliantly and provides in the self-proclaimed ruler Prince John a pathetic, infantile villain who whines about minor discomforts as often as he gets angry about taxes. In fact, Prince John's tax policy is exactly what's been adopted by Congress and the executive branch during this presidency: steal from the poor, give to the rich, and convince the once-middle-class common folk that they're starving and suffering for the greater good. I think I can recall what Little John sings while he and Robin Hood are hunted by the Sheriff of Nottingham:
"Oh, the world will cry, of a Russian spy, a thousand years from now / and not because of his toupee, or how he worked for a crowd / while the good old Constitution gets eroded, sheared, and dumped / we'll all just have to slave away to that good-for-nothing, Trump..."
Prince John is a self-obsessed baby whose greed outweighs an already-diminished capacity for reason or compassion. It's hard to distinguish between genuine ambivalence and an unparalleled degree of selfishness in him.

3. Clayton - Tarzan


Quietly one of the nastier Disney villains, Clayton lies to Doctor Archimedes Porter (Jane's father) about his purpose in joining their voyage - as he intends to track the Silverback gorillas Tarzan calls family using Porter's expertise, then trap them to be sold. While the racial discrepancy is the more obvious (the film's plot revolves around Tarzan's quest to understand his own identity as the ape-man), the more Trumpian feature of Clayton's arc is his proficiency as a smooth-talking salesman. The human characters are all initially deceived by him, despite his rough exterior - they think him an expert in his field despite not liking his attitude. But those threatened by his goals - Kerchak, Kala, Terk, Tantor, etc. - can sense immediately that he's not to be trusted, and are imprisoned, even killed, because Clayton makes regretful allies of Tarzan, Jane, and the professor. Finally, when Clayton is bound by vines, he violently cuts at them, trying to free himself to take prisoners and escape Africa - and is caught by them, literally hanging himself in his greed and his lies. Though I suppose, his willingness to pull up his bootstraps and do the dirty work makes Clayton distinctly un-Trumplike.

4. The Queen of Hearts - Alice in Wonderland

While she's the main villain, the Queen of Hearts is only seen in the final act of Alice's journey, so her character isn't very developed (that's accurate already!). What we do know she possesses is the shortest temper and attention span ever dreamed of. Her trademark demand, "Off with their heads!" offers a glimpse at her tyrannical domestic policy, and her unwillingness to recognize Alice's innocence indicates a bias against foreigners, too. Her army of card-carrying supporters begrudgingly defends her leadership, a passive submission to violent aristocracy and social injustice. Further, no one could ever accuse her of putting the people's welfare ahead of her life of excess.

5. Scar - The Lion King

Scar's rise to power and grim rule are lifted partly from the plot of Hamlet and partly from Hitler's ascension in the 1930s. That makes him the ultimate precursor to the Trump "presidency." Murder side, Scar convinces entire swaths of the Pride Lands electorate that his leadership would be better than Mufasa's (or Simba's), lies to the rest of the pride about their disappearances, divides the population by race and class, and promises his supporters increased social mobility (and food) - at the expense of the innocent majority. He also lashes out against challenges to his intelligence, engages in conspiratorial cover-ups of his behavior, and claims to be victimized to generate sympathy ("I'm afraid I'm...at the shallow end of the gene pool...").
He also seizes the crown rather than winning a popular vote.
Hyenas: "Yeah, who needs a king? No king! No kind! La-la-la-la la la!"
Scar: "Idiots! There will be a king! I will be king!"

Also, he's orange.

Honorable Mentions:
- While Trump's ego and ironic incompetence is reminiscent of Gaston's (Beauty and the Beast), his television appearances singing the theme to "Green Acres" and elsewhere demonstrate he's not nearly good enough a singer.

- Ursula (The Little Mermaid) deceives Ariel and makes the worst deal ever - by far, but she's not truly "in charge" of the sea while Poseidon is around, so the comparison isn't fair.

- Governor Ratcliffe (Pocahontas) competes for local power against Chief Powhatan, but never seizes full control of the Virginia area during the film. Nevertheless, his narcissism and greed compel him to lead a crusade against the "savage" Native Americans in search of gold, at everyone else's expense. I can hear it now: "In sixteen-hundred seven/we sailed the open sea/for glory, God - you're fired - and the Vir-gin-ia Com-pa-ny!"

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This article has not been reviewed by Odyssey HQ and solely reflects the ideas and opinions of the creator.
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