About a month after Donald Trump’s second term, the White House used social media to promote a video featuring ice officials placing immigrants in chains and handcuffs before climbing an airplane, probably for the deportation. A backlash quickly followedWith many observers noting how dehumanizing the display was.
Two months later, the president always talks about how much he loves videos like these.
Sitting alongside President Salvadoran Nayib Bukele in the Oval Office on Monday, the Republican said: “I’m going to tell you who is good. Whoever sends us these recordings that we get. They have become sensations in this country. Cassettes. Get out of planes. This is what people want to see.”
Trump added: “Good television. Even the sound, you know. All the others. Very good.” Turning to his salvador counterpart, Trump continued by saying: “Cecil B. Demille. Have you always heard of Cecil B. Demille? Large filmmaker. The biggest of all. “
CNN recently reported These elements of the administration expulsion program were designed to be “ready for the camera” and presented a “look made for television”. Shortly after, Axios published A related report Trump’s immigration repression includes an emphasis on “choreography, photo sessions, wardrobe changes and difficult speeches”. An official of the White House said that the emphasis on “the visuals” was deliberate. The New York Times added These implementing efforts surrounding the immigration policies of the administration are excited “like the mini-reality emissions-with Perp walks and even guest stars”.
The president has apparently noticed – and he seems delighted. In fact, it becomes easier and easier to believe that the officials of the Trump administration are less an executive branch and more a theater troupe which is mainly concerned with making a good show.
And if there is an official for a main role in republican production, it is the secretary of domestic security Kristi Noem. The Wall Street Journal reported This week on the “style made for television” of the southern Dakotan.
During his first day of work, Noem held a meeting of the city to go to the workforce – and came on stage to the song by Trace Adkins “Hot Mama”. She put on border patrol fatigue, totalized a pistol and posed with plane controls in the cockpit of a coastal guard plane. Supervised photos of the secretary, one of them with a cowboy hat on horseback with border agents around her and another of her on a mountain bike, mounted in different offices around the DHS, according to the photos seen by the Wall Street Journal.
Noem was so eager to go to the cameras and microphones that early in her mandate, she accompanied ice officials during a raid before dawn and tweeted images of her efforts. The newspaper added: “The problem: the raid was still in progress when Noem posted on this subject, undermining the element of surprise, according to people familiar with the operation.”
Take stock of Noem’s photos sessions, Chris Hayes of MSNBC noted Last week, “every day is Halloween” for the secretary of the DHS. It coincided with A New York Times report This described the agency of Noem as the “advertising of the Ministry of the Fatherland” of the administration.
Certainly, Noem is not the only one. Prosecutor General Pam Bondi, for reasons that were not entirely clear, recently organized an event in which she pronounced remarks While waving false drugs. The president himself continues to prioritize the staging to an unhealthy degree.
But the main thing remains the same: the Americans hoping to see a white house focused more on governance, and less on theaters and performative policy, will have to reduce their expectations.