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Donald Trump.

In just over two weeks as president, the former billionaire real estate mogul and reality star has seized control of the American zeitgeist. He's permeated almost every area of national life, thriving in a sea of publicity, controversy and conflict.

Plenty of past presidents, including Barack Obama and John F. Kennedy, quickly captured the national conversation after assuming office. But Trump's ubiquity is especially notable since it stems from his gargantuan, antagonistic personality and a governing philosophy that often exacerbates political and cultural fault lines.

Trump's swift capture of the national debate is testimony to the huge cultural power of the presidency and its capacity to shape the spirit of the United States and the world. But his constant in-your-face style also represents a risky experiment. He has yet to prove his constant presence -- for good and bad -- can foster a successful presidency. And he's opening a new front in the cultural backlash coalescing among elites in the coastal entertainment, media and advertising hubs.

Cue an instant torrent of Internet-breaking social media posts showing a younger Trump lounging on a bed in a crisp white bathrobe.

It's just another way the intense emotional experience of the Trump presidency is careening through business, politics, the arts, and popular culture.

Sometimes the Trump effect is being manifested in unusual ways.

But in Orwell's dystopian vision, Big Brother was watching you. In Trump's America, everyone is watching him.

For now, Trump seems to be happy just dominating the conversation. His omnipresence is such that even events that have little to do with the new President suddenly seem to take on new significance because of him.

Take the Super Bowl -- one of the few unifying events left in American life.

Going into Sunday's big game, one of the big questions was whether Lady Gaga's half-time show would be an overtly political denunciation of Trump. After all, it's now almost obligatory for Hollywood awards galas to feature anti-Trump screeds and for pop stars like Madonna and Bruce Springsteen to jab the President from onstage.

But there was an undeniable political undercurrent in Super Bowl ads, which usually avoid political edginess.

Several spots appeared to contain anti-Trump themes.

Given Trump's repeated vows to build a border wall, it was hard to view the ad as anything but a criticism of the President. 84 Lumber, a building-supply company, said the ad was initially rejected for being too "controversial" so it cut the wall out of TV version.

Budweiser, known for its tear-jerking ads with galloping draft horses, also took a political turn, highlighting the tough immigrant journey of one of its founders Adolphus Busch, to pursue his American dream.

"Go back home," Busch is told in one shot. Though the ad pre-dated Trump's temporary entry ban on the nationals of seven mostly Muslim nations, the message's spot seemed more powerful with that in mind.

That such a viewpoint is even possible reflects a sudden awakening triggered by Trump in a nation which now appears more politically on edge -- but also more attuned to dissent and debate -- than it has been for years.

For liberals, the crusade is being reflected in the arts.

The most notable case is "Saturday Night Live's" abrasive, sometimes sinister portrayal of Trump (by Alec Baldwin) and his advisers. This week, White House adviser Steve Bannon was played as the "Angel of Death."

The President hasn't taken the lampooning well, frequently firing off on Twitter about the show.

But maybe he protests too much.

"Trump takes himself so seriously. Being parodied on SNL is like a right of passage. It's like 'Oh my God' that are writing about me, I am in the Zeitgeist," Judy Gold, an Emmy Award-winning writer and comedienne, told CNN's Brooke Baldwin Monday.

Trump may also be angry like a fox.

His feuds with Hollywood, his refusal to play along with SNL and his jousts with the media and the Silicon Valley tech titans amount to more than a rejection of the pop culture that made him.

He's aligning himself exactly with the views of many of his supporters who disdain what they see as the elite's political correctness and smugness.

Even people who have worked for Trump admit he makes an odd blue collar hero, given his eponymous Manhattan tower dripping with gold leaf and his life once lived in the pages of New York gossip columns and his obsession with one particular spoil of pop culture -- the cover of Time magazine.

"He is the unlikeliest of populist leaders," said one senior administration official who requested anonymity to talk about the President.

This person theorized that Trump already had a common touch before entering politics but that he refined his blue-collar instincts by showing deep curiosity about the lives of his voters on the campaign trail, then thinking about their lives and problems.

"That allows him to see what people are like throughout the rest of the country," the official said.

Perhaps that knowledge is one reason why Trump could not care less that he's now apparently despised by the popular culture he once strove to join.

If everyone is obsessed with him, his work might already be part done.

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The name on everyone's lips: Donald Trump - CNN