Finding a precedent in U.S. history for Donald Trump when he won the presidency in 2016 is impossible. He was the first president who never held neither elective nor appointive government office, and a multi-millionaire construction magnate with three trips to the altar behind him.
To find a model for "The Donald," one would have to look across the ocean and discover "Il Cavaliere" ("The Knight") — Silvio Berlusconi, Italy's longest-serving postwar prime minister, who died Sunday night at age 86.
Born Sept. 29, 1936, Berlusconi was the son of a bank employee who earned a law degree with honors. Like Trump, he was a born entertainer. He was an upright bass player and crooner on a cruise ship. Eventually, the entertainer-entrepreneur turned investments in property development, advertising, and telecommunications into a multibillion-dollar fortune.
Berlusconi's Canale 5 became Italy's first privately-owned national network and, for the first time, Italian viewers could watch American dramas such as "Dallas" with subtitles. In 1986, he purchased his hometown soccer club, the then-struggling AC Milan, and oversaw its emergence as one of the top-flight clubs in Italian soccer.
After launching the political party Forza Italia ("Let's Go Italy"), Berlusconi competed in the 1994 parliamentary elections. In one televised debate, when opponents criticized him for having no government experience, he shot back: "Did you ever win a world championship?"
Berlusconi easily won the election. Though he would exit of the prime minister's office a year later, he'd return to office in 2001 and serve through 2006, then again from 2008 to 2011. No modest man, he famously said his comeback for an unprecedented third mandate in power had made him "the Jesus Christ of politics" — a comment from which, amid widespread criticism, he retreated.
"Il Cavaliere" oversaw simplification and a flattening of Italy's complex tax system, and he increased the number of police to combat street crime. Under Berlusconi, Italy backed the U.S. in its War on Terror, and the prime minister had developed a close friendship with then-President George W. Bush.
The Rome-Washington alliance continued when Barack Obama succeeded Bush as president. Following a meeting with America's first black president in 2009, Berlusconi left jaws dropping when he referred to him as "What's his name? Some tanned guy. Ah, Barack Obama."
Berlusconi had also became a close friend of Vladimir Putin and he urged the European Union to accept Russia as a member. As Italy's third-richest man ($6.9 billion in U.S. dollars), his business empire was under constant fire in court, and the prime minister frequently had to defend himself.
In 2013, Berlusconi was convicted of tax fraud. He received a four-year sentence, from which he was exempted because of his age (76), and he was banned from holding office for two years. He served his sentence by doing community service, which consisted primarily of working in homes for the elderly and entertaining the residents with song.
Like Trump, Berlusconi made no secret of being a lady's man; his storied "bunga bunga parties" with young ladies were a contributing factor to his finally being dethroned as prime minister in 2011.
However, the tycoon-politician wasn't finished. In 2022, his Forza Italia won enough seats to make a party of the coalition government headed by Giorgia Meloni, Italy's first-ever female prime minister and a onetime Berlusconi Cabinet member. And Berlusconi himself won a seat in the Italian Senate … at age 85.
Silvio Berlusconi was indeed the Italian Donald Trump before Donald Trump became the force he is in the United States. A durable and colorful politician known inside and outside Italy, "Il Cavaliere" won't soon be forgotten.
John Gizzi is chief political columnist and White House correspondent for Newsmax. For more of his reports, Go Here Now.
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