Are Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump the same person? The normal test for that is asking if they’ve ever been seen in the same room together – and, OK, they have. At Trump’s third wedding. Clinton says she and Bill only went because they thought “it would be fun.”
But it’s more than that: Power also attracts power; egos are drawn to ego. And when chatting over a glass of champagne at the reception, they might have found they have a surprising amount in common.
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1. Age. Clinton is 68; Trump turns 70 in a few days. They’re both baby boomers and their lives followed two very “Sixties” trajectories. Clinton, the young idealist, grew up to become a left-wing activist. Trump, the square WASP, grew up to become a filthy rich yuppie. They’re like Barbra Streisand and Robert Redford in “The Way We Were.” Without the romance. Thank God.
2. There are some things they agree on. Seriously. Trump flirts with extremism but on many practical questions his instincts are moderate. Both candidates pledge to preserve Social Security. Both have found nice things to say about Planned Parenthood. Both think it’s time to spend more on infrastructure. Both probably think Bernie Sanders is nuts.
3. They’ve been on television since television was invented, or thereabouts. I was born in 1982. Clinton entered the Arkansas governors’ mansion in 1979; Trump was making headlines for his real estate deals in the early 1980s. There hasn’t been a year of my life in which one of these two wasn’t explaining to Barbara Walters why they’re misunderstood/innocent of all charges/fighting back/still happily married. Their lives are rolling episodes of “The View.”
Photos: Donald Trump's rise
President-elect Donald Trump has been in the spotlight for years. From developing real estate and producing and starring in TV shows, he became a celebrity long before winning the White House.
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Trump at age 4. He was born in 1946 to Fred and Mary Trump in New York City. His father was a real estate developer.
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Trump, left, in a family photo. He was the second-youngest of five children.
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Trump, center, stands at attention during his senior year at the New York Military Academy in 1964.
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Trump, center, wears a baseball uniform at the New York Military Academy in 1964. After he graduated from the boarding school, he went to college. He started at Fordham University before transferring and later graduating from the Wharton School, the University of Pennsylvania's business school.
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Photos: Donald Trump's rise
Trump stands with Alfred Eisenpreis, New York's economic development administrator, in 1976 while they look at a sketch of a new 1,400-room renovation project of the Commodore Hotel. After graduating college in 1968, Trump worked with his father on developments in Queens and Brooklyn before purchasing or building multiple properties in New York and Atlantic City, New Jersey. Those properties included Trump Tower in New York and Trump Plaza and multiple casinos in Atlantic City.
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Trump attends an event to mark the start of construction of the New York Convention Center in 1979.
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Trump wears a hard hat at the Trump Tower construction site in New York in 1980.
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Trump was married to Ivana Zelnicek Trump from 1977 to 1990, when they divorced. They had three children together: Donald Jr., Ivanka and Eric.
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The Trump family, circa 1986.
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Trump uses his personal helicopter to get around New York in 1987.
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Trump stands in the atrium of the Trump Tower.
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Trump attends the opening of his new Atlantic City casino, the Taj Mahal, in 1989.
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Trump signs his second book, "Trump: Surviving at the Top," in 1990. Trump has published at least 16 other books, including "The Art of the Deal" and "The America We Deserve."
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Trump and singer Michael Jackson pose for a photo before traveling to visit Ryan White, a young child with AIDS, in 1990.
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Trump dips his second wife, Marla Maples, after the couple married in a private ceremony in New York in December 1993. The couple divorced in 1999 and had one daughter together, Tiffany.
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Trump putts a golf ball in his New York office in 1998.
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An advertisement for the television show "The Apprentice" hangs at Trump Tower in 2004. The show launched in January of that year. In January 2008, the show returned as "Celebrity Apprentice."
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A 12-inch talking Trump doll is on display at a toy store in New York in September 2004.
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Trump attends a news conference in 2005 that announced the establishment of Trump University. From 2005 until it closed in 2010, Trump University had about 10,000 people sign up for a program that promised success in real estate. Three separate lawsuits -- two class-action suits filed in California and one filed by New York's attorney general -- argued that the program was mired in fraud and deception. Trump's camp rejected the suits' claims as "baseless." And Trump has charged that the New York case against him is politically motivated.
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Trump attends the U.S. Open tennis tournament with his third wife, Melania Knauss-Trump, and their son, Barron, in 2006. Trump and Knauss married in 2005.
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Trump wrestles with "Stone Cold" Steve Austin at WrestleMania in 2007. Trump has close ties with the WWE and its CEO, Vince McMahon.
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For "The Apprentice," Trump was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in January 2007.
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Trump appears on the set of "The Celebrity Apprentice" with two of his children -- Donald Jr. and Ivanka -- in 2009.
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Trump poses with Miss Universe contestants in 2011. Trump had been executive producer of the Miss Universe, Miss USA and Miss Teen USA pageants since 1996.
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In 2012, Trump announces his endorsement of Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney.
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Trump speaks in Sarasota, Florida, after accepting the Statesman of the Year Award at the Sarasota GOP dinner in August 2012. It was shortly before the Republican National Convention in nearby Tampa.
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Trump appears on stage with singer Nick Jonas and television personality Giuliana Rancic during the 2013 Miss USA pageant.
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In June 2015, during a speech from Trump Tower, Trump announced that he was running for President. He said he would give up "The Apprentice" to run.
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Trump -- flanked by U.S. Sens. Marco Rubio, left, and Ted Cruz -- speaks during a CNN debate in Miami on March 10. Trump dominated the GOP primaries and emerged as the presumptive nominee in May.
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The Trump family poses for a photo in New York in April.
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Trump speaks during a campaign event in Evansville, Indiana, on April 28. After Trump won the Indiana primary, his last two competitors dropped out of the GOP race.
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Trump delivers a speech at the Republican National Convention in July, accepting the party's nomination for President. "I have had a truly great life in business," he said. "But now, my sole and exclusive mission is to go to work for our country -- to go to work for you. It's time to deliver a victory for the American people."
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Trump faces Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton in the first presidential debate, which took place in Hempstead, New York, in September.
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Trump apologizes in a video, posted to his Twitter account in October, for vulgar and sexually aggressive remarks he made a decade ago regarding women. "I said it, I was wrong and I apologize," Trump said, referring to lewd comments he made during a previously unaired taping of "Access Hollywood." Multiple Republican leaders rescinded their endorsements of Trump after the footage was released.
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Trump walks on stage with his family after he was declared the election winner on November 9. "Ours was not a campaign, but rather, an incredible and great movement," he told his supporters in New York.
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Trump is joined by his family as he is sworn in as President on January 20.
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4. They’re members of the 1%. Both rail against the iniquities of modern capitalism … and both of them have made a heap of money out of it. Clinton is thought to be worth about $15.3 million – an income boosted by speeches given to Goldman Sachs that were so boring that attendees say they can’t remember what was in them. No one’s ever said that about Donald Trump. His precise net worth is disputed: There’s evidence he inflates it — a lot. But a man who flies everywhere in his own branded aircraft probably doesn’t dine out on food stamps.
5. They color their hair. Sexism works both ways. Yes, women have to put up with the pay gap, but at least Clinton can fess up to using dye. Men, by contrast, try to pretend that they’re just naturally cherry red. The evolution of Trump’s hair is fascinating: from blond to ginger to gray and all the way back to a kind of dirty mustard. His bathroom sink must look like an artist’s palette.
6. They’re New Yorkers. Clinton has the politics: liberal, big machine. Trump has the machismo attitude. Of the two, however, Clinton distinguishes herself by knowing how to eat a pizza. With the fingers, not the fork.
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8. They face investigations for potential misconduct. Clinton for alleged use and abuse of government email. Trump for setting up Trump University, for which he is facing three lawsuits that argue the program defrauded thousands of people of millions. Former students say they were told they’d be meeting the head professor himself only to be invited to have their photo taken with a cardboard Trump cutout. Someone should write a piece of speculative fiction in which both candidates wind up running for office from jail.
9.They share a lot family history. Clinton’s grandparents were British Isles stock. Trump’s paternal grandparents came from Germany and his mother was raised on an island in Scotland. So both the candidates are mostly the descendants of 19th century WASP arrivals but, and this is interesting, they both have daughters who married Jewish men – Ivanka Trump even converted. Incidentally, you know the federal judge, Gonzalo Curiel, who is presiding over the Trump University case, and who Trump calls a “hater” because of his Mexican heritage? Curiel’s father arrived in the United States in the 1920s. Trump’s mother landed in 1930. Now who seems more American?
10. They are loathed by large swathes of the population. Trump has a net negative of -33%. Clinton only does slightly better with -21%. Both are widely regarded as untrustworthy. The only point of contrast might be how well voters judge that they lie. Clinton’s fabrications are well polished: One senses that she could be trusted to lie on the world stage and not embarrass us. Trump’s fabrications are more transparent but also more fun. He lies loudly. The magic beans he sells are “gonna be huuuuuge.”
Yes, there are a lot of differences between Clinton and Trump – and the election probably provides the starkest choice in terms of personality and outlook in decades. But their similarities suggest that in many ways this election is business as usual.
Clinton claims to be on the side of the little guy, but is far too rich and cozy with Wall Street to be a populist. And Trump talks about jobs, greatness and China – but made his billions in ways that some call unethical.
Donald Trump ought to keep a close eye on Britain’s vote Thursday on whether to leave the European Union.
