Kim VS Trump: A Hair Style Duet

When Donald Trump joined the international media circus of politics, first as the Republican candidate and then as the President of the US, his original hair style stirred a widespread curiosity. Then Trump appeared side by side with the North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, also the bearer of a very different yet equally unconventional hairdo. The pair formed such a suggestive diptych that I thought the powers of semiotic analysis should be summoned to inquire on that rare and relevant juxtaposition. The present article summarises the outcomes of that analysis. The conclusion suggests that Trump’s hair represents a kind of ‘autism in self-presentation’, while in Kim’s case the separation extends to his culture as a whole. In conclusion, the combined consequences of these characteristics of the two personalities lead to the hypothesis that the dialogue they have undertaken may remain less a true substantial confrontation than a mere display of contact.