I’ve always wondered who this character was based off of because these types of people really do exist in cut throat industries.
Well, the newly picked Chief of Staff by Obama, Emanuel, is indeed quite interesting:
Emanuel is said to have “mailed a rotting fish to a former coworker after the two parted ways.”[7] On the night after the 1996 election, “Emanuel was so angry at the president’s enemies that he stood up at a celebratory dinner with colleagues from the campaign, grabbed a steak knife and began rattling off a list of betrayers, shouting ‘Dead! … Dead! … Dead!’ and plunging the knife into the table after every name.”[6] His “take-no-prisoners attitude” earned him the nickname “Rahm-bo”
Anyhow, his brother, Ari Emanuel is a talent agent in LA and Ari Gold’s character is based on him.