USA TODAY International Edition
Thanks to Trump, a new worst photo- op
Now the one on my résumé is only 2nd
President Donald Trump walked out of the White House gates and into history this week. His stroll through Lafayette Park took him to St. John’s Episcopal Church. There, after an egregious abuse of power, and with his penchant for awkward poses, Trump created the worst presidential visual of all time. I should know — I helped create what is now the second worst.
During the racial justice protests, as in normal times, there is an understandable focus on what Trump is saying — and failing to say. He has taunted governors, blustered about the military and, with staggering narcissism, tweeted that he has “done more for the Black Community than any president since Abraham Lincoln.” Yet he has paid only the barest lip service to the police killing of George Floyd or the deep systemic racism that has sent people into the streets of almost every American city.
Images tend to stay in the public consciousness longer than speech. That is why White House and campaign staffs spend extraordinary amounts of time, energy and money producing pictures they hope will create favorable impressions for voters.
Mostly, these images are predictable and successful. But as political stagecraft impresario Josh King detailed in his book “Off Script,” sometimes it all goes awry. Things can break, as candidate Bob Dole found in 1996, when a railing gave way and he plummeted off a stage. And the staff can make bad choices, as President George W. Bush found after standing in front of a “Mission Accomplished” banner on an aircraft carrier when the mission in Iraq decidedly had not been accomplished.
For decades, Massachusetts Gov. Mike Dukakis riding in a tank during the 1988 presidential campaign has been the ultimate example of bad political visuals. Dukakis looked so silly, with a helmet perched on his head and his necktie firmly knotted, that the George H. W. Bush campaign made a devastating TV ad with the video.
Cascading mistakes
I was responsible for setting up the visuals. A cascading series of mistakes, by me and others, led to what King calls “the worst political event in history.” The tank fiasco is still cited as the paradigm for how presidential stagecraft should not be done. At long last, however, that ignominy has been passed to Trump and his team. The photo- op at St. John’s wasn’t just odd looking and uncomfortable. It was built upon violations of the Constitution, the law, simple decency and common sense.
Let’s start with the setup. Hundreds of peaceful protesters had gathered outside the White House on Monday, and there had been no reports of illegal conduct. The city curfew was scheduled for 7 p. m. About 6: 30, an array of law enforcement units suddenly began using force to clear the area to make way for Trump’s walk. They fired pepper spray and rubber bullets as they punched and pushed protesters, journalists and even priests.
Violently evicting peaceful protesters is as clear a violation of the First Amendment and abuse of Article II presidential power as can be imagined. Priests chased away from the church by force were fuming, and the bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington, Mariann Budde, was “outraged.”
A stagecraft disaster
It’s impossible to overstate how insane this is. In a normal White House, the staff is vigilant about avoiding even a hint of presumption in event planning. When I worked for Vice President Al Gore, we had to apologize when he took a canoe trip and local authorities released some water from a dam three hours early to raise the level of the river.
Then there’s the photo- op itself. When Trump posed at the church, he stood in his odd, stiff posture, holding a Bible aloft like he was offering it for auction. He glowered at the camera and when asked by a reporter whether the Bible was his Bible, he replied, “A Bible.” As Budde noted, Trump did not ask permission to use the church as a prop or even warn her that he was coming. He did not pray. He did not offer “a word of balm or condolence.” He looked angry and mean … at a church.
Trump’s usual critics piled on immediately, and some of his Republican allies were appalled. MSNBC host Joe Scarborough compared the St. John’s debacle ( unfavorably) to the tank event. “If your question is, should you use tear gas to clear a path so the president can go have a photo- op, the answer is no," said Sen. Tim Scott, R- S. C.
The Trump team better get used to it. Because if my experience is any guide, they’re going to be answering for this disgrace for a long, long time.