Return of the Thumb
Grame Wood at the Atlantic tries to figure out That Photo from El Paso – the one in which Trump is grinning and thumbs-upping.
First there are the smiles, so chipper in the aftermath of mass murder. For some reason, this Trump smile calls to mind the one in his famous tweeted portrait in which he’s eating a taco bowl (“I love Hispanics!”) served by Trump Tower Grill. Then there is the thumbs-up, also present to signal approval of the taco bowl, and in this case to signal approval of what, exactly? The narrow survival of the infant? The heroism of the hospital staff and first responders who cared for the wounded? Somehow neither of these possibilities seems quite right, and contemplation has brought me no closer to a better answer.
Wood is overthinking it. Trump is not complicated. He’s just doing an inappropriate bizarre insulting thing because he’s too stupid to do anything else. Camera – pose – do thumbs-up and grin like a good sport. It’s no more than that. He doesn’t connect things, so he doesn’t connect the hospital photo with the reason he’s at the hospital, he just sees a camera and some people arranged in front of it. It’s hard to overestimate how thick he is; he’s always thicker than we can believe.
In the immediate bereavement of an infant’s parents, nothing is needed but respectful silence. This is never truer than for a man like Trump, who cannot speak without giving offense and enjoying it. The photograph was released by Melania and could have been taken in the spirit of mourning that the occasion deserved, or it could have been taken not at all. It is one of the most twisted things I have seen in a long time.
Yes but he did the same thing in Parkland. I remember posting some of those photos, and they were exactly the same.
This one for instance:
You wouldn’t think that would be possible, but there it is. Thick AND shallow at the same time. There has to be some high-powered, multi-dimensional mathematical phenomenon happening under that godawful combover.
Infinite thickness in a finite volume. How has he not reached critical mass? It’s a wonder he hasn’t imploded into a singulaity of Stupid, from which even tweets cannot escape. A consumation devoutly to be wished.
A lot of expense could be saved by just trotting out a lifesize, cardboard cut-out of Trump in exactly this pose. The cut-out would be so much more dignified and articulate than the real thing, and would do a much better job of presidenting.
Or one of those balloons would do nicely.
It’s just a simpler brain than that of a normal person. Input: photo is being taken of me. Output: standard photo op behaviour. There is absolutely no other thought which might disturb the execution of that programmatic response.
Remember that tweet were he stated that he is not racist because unemployment of PoC was “lowest (BEST)”. This “BEST” is in my opinion most telling – to him, it was a surprise that a low number could actually be best, so after some staffer explained this to him, he put it in the tweet because he expected others to be as surprised by that as he was.
Even more disturbing is the obsequious simpering of the hospital staff around him.
#5, disturbing perhaps, but not surprising. I know what sometimes has to be done to maintain a job, and in this case, avoid being blackballed by your industry. I have to grin and bear it when I am told that we are not allowed to question the official reasons behind any war – as a college instructor, I will not follow that edict in my classroom, because that would be unethical. But if I want to keep my job, I may need to grin and bear it during the meeting where we are given this instruction. And, like most other American workers, I do actually need my job. I don’t need to be pushed out, when my field is overstuffed with people who can’t get jobs, and I am a 58 year old woman, thereby making me one of the single most undesirable hires in the field, no matter what my knowledge or experience might be.
I agree it is disturbing, because no one should have to do that. But in this case, they’re having their picture taken with POTUS, who has shown that he is petty, mean, vindictive, unhinged, uncontrolled and uncontrollable, and outrageously autocratic. How much more problem is that then having to deal with the president of a small time college in a deep red state?