Between 1989 and 1993, Sean Spicer was a student at Connecticut College. He majored in Government, served as captain of the sailing team, acted as an SGA Senator for three years, and spent his first year in the Plex. He ran for class president four times, losing each time. In 2017, Spicer served as the twenty-eighth White House Press Secretary and as White House Communications Director under President Donald Trump. Now he’s dancing the Cha Cha in a lime green ruffle blouse on ABC’s Dancing with the Stars.
When Spicer was first announced as a contestant, many people had their doubts, including the show’s host Tom Bergeron (no relation to Katherine). They believed that his casting puts us one step closer to normalizing Trump’s administration and the policies put into place since his election. If you need a reminder of any of Spicer’s previous spotlight moments, may I suggest the one where he claimed that Trump’s inauguration had drawn the “largest audience to ever witness an inauguration, period – both in person and around the globe.” (We’ve all seen the pictures of the inauguration and know that wasn’t the case.) Or, when Spicer had to apologize for saying that Adolf Hitler was bad, but not as bad as the current president of Syria. Additionally, the phrase “alternative facts” is partially predicated on his press conference style. The American Broadcasting Company (ABC) has made no mention of any of his previous controversies so far, and Spicer himself appears to be enjoying his time in sequins and spandex.
In the past couple years, the former Camel has worked to distance himself from the White House and to reinvent his image. After Melissa McCarthy did a popular spoof of him on SNL that has over 34 million views on YouTube, he appeared at the 2017 Emmy Awards. He has also written a book (The Briefing: Politics, the Press, and the President) and secured a visiting fellowship at the Institute of Politics at the Harvard Kennedy School.
Spicer is not the only Republican to ever compete for that shiny mirrorball trophy. Former GOP House Majority Leader Tom DeLay competed in Season 9, leaving after only week 3, while former Texas governor and current U.S. Energy Secretary Rick Perry was the second “star” to be eliminated in Season 23. And Marla Maples, President Trump’s second wife, was on Season 22 and eliminated in week 4.
Unlike them, however, Spicer appears to be running the show much like a campaign. His Twitter is full of Tweets urging fans to “Text SEAN 10 times to 21523,” and he’s advertising campaign posters and t-shirts all available on SpicerArnold.com (Lindsay Arnold is Spicer’s dancing partner). When opening the site, the slogan “We’re counting on your votes to win the Mirror Ball!” pops up. Shirts and hats sell for $25.00; buttons go for $10.00. However, the former Press Secretary has narrowly escaped elimination four times and his appearances have led to ridicule more than once. Despite his low scores, Spicer has remained on the show through the votes of the show’s viewers. Republicans all over the country have been texting “SEAN”, and officials like President Trump himself have been regularly tweeting their support for him. His opening night dance to “Spice Up Your Life” by the Spice Girls in a lime green ruffle shirt was mocked on social media for days, and he routinely has gotten low scores since then. But he appears to be taking the jokes in stride—on his site, he’s auctioning off the meme-worthy lime ruffle shirt to benefit wounded veterans through The Independence Fund and The Yellow Ribbon Fund. The shirt sold for $3,810 in a matter of days.
Connecticut College has made no note of their infamous alum’s appearances so far on the show, and doesn’t seem likely to. When his casting was announced on August 21st, they congratulated another alum—Kristen Park Hopson ’01—for her feature in Business Insider and announced that they were gearing up for Move-in Day. Spicer wasn’t mentioned once. He doesn’t seem too upset that his alma mater isn’t watching him every Monday night—in fact, Spicer doesn’t even follow the college on social media. It seems as though the disinterest in each other is mutual.
Why does Spicer want to remain on the show so badly? I slid into his DMs to ask and also sent a couple emails, but he must have been too busy practicing to check his messages. Spicer made $125,000 just by agreeing to be on the show, and if they make it to Week 3 and beyond, he and his dancing partner will begin to earn additional cash each week. The maximum which contestants can earn is $295,000. By comparison, Spicer was making just under $180,000 during his time with the Trump administration, per a White House report released in 2017. It pays more to dance the waltz on television than to work in the heart of America’s government, apparently. •
