Throughout the 2016 US presidential election, pundits repeatedly described Donald Trump as a performance artist and his campaign as performance art. Meanwhile, his alt-right supporters were mounting performance art shows, debating the meaning of Marina Abramović’s work, and developing their own theories of political performance. For experts in performance theory, such punditry and provocation is like the image in a funhouse mirror. It’s hard to make sense of such bizarre, distorted images—let alone to recognize ourselves in them. This article insists that, nonetheless, we should try. Trump and his movement pose special challenges to American political culture—and also to academic performance theory. His rise has revealed the limitations of a politics (and performance theory) based on norms and their transgression. It has also given the lie to politicians’ false belief that they (and only they) are not performing their politics. The challenge now—for academics, activists, citizens, and journalists alike—is to articulate how performance works, how it provides models of cultural power.

中文翻译：

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艺术家是总统：唐纳德特朗普时代的行为艺术和其他关键词

在 2016 年美国总统大选期间，权威人士一再将唐纳德特朗普描述为行为艺术家，并将他的竞选活动描述为行为艺术。与此同时，他的另类右翼支持者正在举办表演艺术展，辩论玛丽娜·阿布拉莫维奇作品的意义，并发展自己的政治表演理论。对于表演理论专家来说，这样的权威和挑衅就像游乐园镜子中的形象。很难理解这些奇怪、扭曲的图像——更不用说在其中认出我们自己了。尽管如此，本文仍坚持我们应该尝试。特朗普和他的运动对美国政治文化以及学业表现理论提出了特殊挑战。他的崛起揭示了基于规范及其违规的政治（和绩效理论）的局限性。它还使政客们错误地相信他们（并且只有他们）没有在执行他们的政治任务。现在的挑战——对于学者、活动家、公民和记者来说——是阐明表演如何运作，它如何提供文化力量的模型。