GREENSBORO, N.C. — Former President Donald Trump likened North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson to Martin Luther King Jr. in an endorsement Saturday, despite the gubernatorial candidate’s long history of controversial comments about homosexuality, religion and victims of sexual abuse.
“This is Martin Luther King on steroids,” Trump said of Robinson at a pre-Super Tuesday rally in North Carolina.
“I told that to Mark. I said, I think you’re better than Martin Luther King. I think you are Martin Luther King times two.” (NBC News)
In my alternative history novel, Martin Luther King on Steroids, I grapple with one of the big questions: What if Dr. King, instead of getting a Ph.D. in theology and following his father into the ministry and civil rights activism, had gone into pro wrestling, hooked up with the young Vince McMahon and medical genius Dr. Zahorian, and crafted himself a fantastic body with the help of drugs?
What kind of dreams would that young man have had? What kind of amazing job would he have done, getting himself recognized more and more? How different would our world be today? Let's just say there's a good chance he wouldn't have thought of organizing a nonviolent civil rights movement based on the principles of Tolstoy and Gandhi, successfully pressured the US government into passing the Civil Rights, Voting Rights, and Fair Housing Acts, or lost his life to an assassin's bullet during a campaign for fairness to Memphis garbage collectors.
On the other hand, he probably wouldn't have become North Carolina's first Black lieutenant governor, either. Not because of the steroid use, which never harmed the political careers of Jesse "The Body" Ventura (governor of Minnesota 1999-2003) or bodybuilder and film star Arnold Schwarzenegger (governor of California 2003–11), meaning no disrespect to either of those gentlemen—Ventura wasn't even a Republican, and got into trouble with Mr. McMahon for trying to start up a wrestlers' union, something I never heard about until tonight (on the other hand I have been keeping one eye on McMahon's current difficulties under a Trump-style pincer attack between a federal investigation and lawsuits for sexual abuse including rape, not forgetting that McMahon is the all-time top donor to the now closed Trump Foundation, having laundered a $5 million payment to Trump through it so Trump wouldn't have to pay tax on it, even as Trump gave Mrs. McMahon a plum job as head of the Small Business Administration).
No, Martin-on-steroids couldn't have become lieutenant governor of NC because he was Black. It would take 57 years from the passage of the Civil Rights Act before that would happen, and who knows how much longer if the real Martin hadn't been on the case but instead on TV trading trash talk with Haystacks Calhoun and Gorgeous George, although come to think of it he probably wouldn't have done that either, given that the first Black wrestler to make a challenge to the title, Luther Lindsay, in 1953–56, never achieved the stardom many felt he deserved before he suffered a fatal heart attack, on top of a pinned opponent, in 1972, at the age of 47.
As to the man who did become the first African American lieutenant governor of North Carolina (the state where Luther Lindsay died, in Charlotte), and is now the Republican candidate for governor of the state, Mark Robinson, I have no evidence that he has ever used steroids, but I also don't know that he hasn't.
Though it's a known fact that
In some individuals, anabolic steroid use can cause dramatic mood swings, increased feelings of hostility, impaired judgment, and increased levels of aggression (often referred to as “roid rage”).
and Robinson has been known to complain that
the Marvel movie Black Panther was "created by an agnostic Jew and put to film by satanic Marxists" that was "only created to pull the shekels out of your Schvartze pockets"
and
"this foolishness about Hitler disarming MILLIONS of Jews and then marching them off to concentration camps is a bunch of hogwash,"[ and "There is a REASON the liberal media fills the airwaves with programs about the NAZI and the '6 million Jews' they murdered."[
"There's no reason anybody anywhere in America should be telling any child about transgenderism, homosexuality, any of that filth. And yes I called it filth. And if you don't like that I called it filth, come see me and I'll explain it to you."
that the sexual assault allegations against Bill Cosby were orchestrated by "the Illuminati"; that Barack Obama was a "top ranking demon" and that Ellen DeGeneres was "proudly serving in Satan's army"
called the Civil Rights Movement a communist plot to "subvert capitalism" and "to subvert free choice".[46] He has also called Martin Luther King Jr. a "communist" and "ersatz pastor"
Which is definitely not something a Martin Luther King who was not on steroids would be likely to say. So all in all I guess it's possible Trump had this right. Why that would have inspired him to endorse Robinson is another question.
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