Keller @ Large: Why Donald Trump May Like 'Citizen Kane' So Much
BOSTON (CBS) - I belatedly watched Megyn Kelly's interview with Donald Trump, and unfortunately I feel like I may have lost a few IQ points in the process. But there was one very interesting piece of information about the presumptive GOP nominee.
Trump's favorite movie is "Citizen Kane," the 75-year-old Orson Welles classic that tells the story of newspaper magnate turned politician William Randolph Hearst.
Like Trump, Hearst inherited a business from his distant-but-wealthy father and expanded it with a shrewd grasp of popular culture and how to manipulate it; he was a founding father of the tabloid style known as "yellow journalism."
As a candidate for office, Hearst was a demagogue who styled himself as a champion of the working class, with wildly fluctuating foreign policy views that ranged from clamoring for war with Spain to militant isolationism. And Hearst's business successes were mixed with spectacular failures.
Citizen Kane is also a portrait of a poor little rich boy who never got over being essentially abandoned by his parents during childhood. It would have been fascinating to hear more from Trump - who was shipped off to a strict military school as a teenager - about exactly why this movie appeals to him so much, but
Kelly didn't bother to ask.
That's too bad. We need to know all we can about what makes these people tick before we hand over the power of the presidency.
And stay tuned for a future commentary devoted to another campaign fact that merits deeper investigation - Hillary Clinton's favorite movie is "The Wizard of Oz."
