Elite-derided arrivistes can convert pop-culture fame into social power.

Evidence

Like Paris Hilton’s great-grandfather Conrad Hilton, Trump found refuge from elitist derision in mass-market entertainment. He became a pop culture fixture through his bestselling book, Trump: The Art of the Deal, a Trump-branded board game that languished in attics across the country, and cameos in Home Alone 2, Zoolander, and The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. His last name, conveniently a homonym for a winning move in card games, became a shorthand for the excesses of capitalism’s hollow promises. Hip-hop lyrics frequently referenced him as a rich guy stock character. — W. David Marx, Blank Space, 420

Categorization

• XREF: Parallel to Marx’s broader argument about status dynamics and the mockery-revenge dialectic in the culture of eating-the-rich; connects to the Reader’s goal of tracing how status signaling mechanisms work.