Business booms 'bigly' for Trump impersonators

Booked-out diaries, assassination fears and an assault in a hotel lift: Donald Trump impersonators have had quite a ride since the Maga original returned to the White House.

With "appearances at parades, golf tournaments and even kids' parties" the Trump lookalike industry is booming, said The Independent.

And there's serious cash to be made from being a Donald doppelganger: on Gig Salad, a platform used to book performers, prices for a personal appearance range from $100 (£77) to $20,000 (£15,500).

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'Bulletproof vest'

Business had been good even before Trump entered the White House for the second time, Florida-based Trump impersonator Thomas Mundy told The Independent. After Trump lost the election in 2020, "people were so p***ed, my bookings doubled". And when Trump got indicted, "my business quadrupled".

Since Trump's re-election in November, Mundy's business has been "insane". He was even approached by a woman to appear at her five-year-old's birthday party. His act is "pretty raunchy", Mundy said, so he and the mother are still "in negotiations".

There is also money to be made on this side of the Atlantic. A Trump impersonator from Southampton, whose income has already increased by 40% since Trump was re-elected, told The Guardian he is expecting an "unstoppable" four years of business. Mike Osman, also known as "Donald Trumped", says the secret to mimicking the US president's skin tone is to "slap on the matt foundation with a brush and then use a lighter colour around the eyes".

But the rewards of imitating such a polarising political figure are not without risk. John Di Domenico, "the world's most famous Trump impersonator", said he has been urged by friends to wear a bulletproof vest after he was attacked "by a livid liberal" in a Las Vegas lift last summer, said The Sun. Di Domenico told the paper that feelings about Trump run so high, he now "requires security staff for gigs".

Fortunes and fate

It's been a different story for the comedians who "lampooned" Kamala Harris and Joe Biden: they're finding out the hard way that impersonators' fortunes "rise and fall based on the fates of the people they portray", said The New York Times.

Allison Reese "found fame online" with her impression of former US vice-president Kamala Harris, earning hundreds of thousands of followers on TikTok, interviews on national news programmes and even a movie role. But since Harris ran for president and lost to Trump, Reese has "had some professional mourning to do", as interest and demand for her impersonations quickly dried up.

Still, there's always room for a pivot. John Morgan once made "over a million dollars" impersonating former US president George W. Bush but, he told The Independent, he has now "transitioned onto the Trump scene".