Apr.03

electoral-vote.com

Dem 47

   

GOP 53

The Case of the Missing Press Conference

This story is a little unusual. Yesterday, before his poorly reviewed speech on Iran, Donald Trump—stationed behind a podium adorned with two gold-painted eagles—delivered some off-the-cuff remarks to an audience in the White House. It's not clear exactly who was in the audience (beyond several members of the Cabinet); at a glance it looks like a press conference, but the press was actually not allowed. Anyhow, the White House posted video of the hour-long session to its website and to YouTube, and then shortly thereafter... disappeared it.

It's not too hard to figure out some of the reasons that someone decided the footage was not a great look for the administration, over and above the tacky gold-eagle podium:

• Trump's spiritual adviser was there, and spoke, and during her remarks she said the President is very much like Jesus Christ, and that is why Trump's enemies are trying to crucify him.
  
  
• Trump slammed several European leaders, most notably France's Emanuel Marcon, who the President declared to be a victim of spousal abuse.
  
  
• He also slammed people who would dare to make fun of Erika Kirk, and advised her that she should "sue their ass off."
  
  
• He reflected on the extent to which he is, or is not, a king.
  
  
• Trump alluded to the speech on Iran that he would make later in the day, and said, "basically, I am going to tell everybody how great I am." That was framed as a little bit of good-natured humor, but it feels like a "joking, not joking" situation, especially because he did go on to give a speech in which he told everyone how great he is.

We can't find anyone who's posted footage of the entire hour, but the links above have clips of the specific remarks in question.

We chose to write this story up for two reasons. The first is that Trump's choice to surround himself with an adoring crowd (click on one of more of the clips and listen to the audience response), and to say the things he said, really underscores how much of a bubble he is in. This is a problem for all presidents, but it's particularly a problem for presidents who do not take steps to puncture the bubble a little. It's even worse for presidents who don't want to so much as acknowledge the existence of a bubble, and who want only fawning praise, since that's the only feedback that is actually "correct." The most famous "bubble" president before Trump was Lyndon B. Johnson at the height of the Vietnam War, but we think Trump's probably got LBJ beat at this point. A president who realizes he is in a bubble and wants to find out what people outside of it really think of him can't ask people around him, but can read newspapers. A Republican president can read The New York Times and a Democratic president can read The Wall Street Journal. There they will find plenty of non-bubbly voices.

The second reason we mention this story is that even when Trump's team proved incompetent in most areas, it was still very disciplined about its social media messaging. Posting this video was a pretty big screw-up, and taking it down probably made it worse, because it makes clear that the administration knows it's problematic and embarrassing. And this isn't the first big social media "oopsie" in recent days; there have been several other things that should not have been posted and had to be taken down, like the video with the racist clip of the Obamas. One wonders what is going on, and how many more oopsies there will be in upcoming weeks. (Z)