Trump did on live TV what other US presidents would just do in private

Psst . here, over here. here, over here.

Do you want to know about trade secrets?

The majority of reporters covering the so-called “halls of power” in Washington, Ottawa, Canberra, London, Paris, and other places prefer routine to spontaneity.

As you can see, predictability is simple. Because most capital cities are boring places, boring is both a pleasant fact on the ground and a dominant state of mind.

The overwrought response to Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s lively dressing-down speech from US President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance was so in tune with the White House press corps’ unwavering preference for the appearance of practiced civility over the impulsive truth.

I was mesmerized by the remarkable scenes that were playing live on my computer screen, in contrast to many other pundits and columnists who rushed right away and almost universally onto the well-known cable news networks to express their disbelief and shock over the “embarrassing spectacle” of America’s tactless commander-in-chief “humiliating” his “wartime hero” guest.

It was refreshing to witness a blatant display of the crudeness, rudeness, and brutishness of power politics that typically takes place far, far away from the cameras and, hence, reporters and the public, as opposed to an orchestrated, forgettable set piece featuring smiling foreign dignitaries and heads of state visiting a never-so-polite president in the Oval Office.

The sea of scribes who sat like silent mannequins for several bruising rounds while Trump, Vance, and Zelenskyy exchanged rhetorical blows anticipating another tame, pedestrian day at work like so many other tame, pedestrian days at work will be loath to admit it.

They are aware of the unanticipated part they play in these choreographed pantomimes.

Visit the Oval Office in Step 1.

Step 2: Take a recording of the foreign minister addressing the US president in a friendly manner.

Step 3: Play the US president’s remarks about the foreign head of state on tape.

Step 4: Report that the foreign head of state and the US president exchanged pleasantries.

Call sources who claim that the US president and the foreign head of state did not exchange pleasantries about one another in private.

Step 6: Recite anonymous sources to inform the US president and his adoring guest that despite having spoken openly and privately about each other, truth be told, they cannot stand one another.

After French President Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer traveled to Washington last week to massage and molify Trump, the formulaic arc of much of the reporting was.

True to his unconventional nature, Trump and his clawing vice president completely resurrected that script with Zelenskyy, either by design or instinctively.

Reporters and experts left confused and disoriented. They lamented that this was not going to happen the way it has, and that they were both disappointed that they were acting as journalists rather than stenographers.

Trump’s hyperbolic outburst comes from more than just what he said to Zelenskyy, who has a clear antipathy for Ukraine and its president, but also how and where he said it, in the Oval Office, before TV cameras.

Trump did his berating and bullying openly, but more discreet and “diplomatic” presidents did it behind closed doors, which is what America’s genteel chattering class considers to be so rank and appalling.

The glaring irony is that American networks and the personalities that make up them use broadcasting “live” to entice viewers who are drawn to the prospect that drama and conflict could erupt at any time because of the urgency of the moment and the possibility that they could be produced in real time.

On Friday, there was newsworthy drama and conflict in the Oval Office, but those networks and personalities turned it down and criticized it as unseemly and unacceptable from both the presidency and the United States itself.

For those who yapping ostriches, here’s a little news:

Being rude, crude, and a brute is a job requirement for any US president, whether Democrat or Republican, aside from lying with a pathological ease and ordering others to kill without a scintilla of regret or remorse.

Trump is not a unique case. The rule is him.

The Mafia re-enlisted the Mafia in early 1963 to try to kill Cuba’s young and charismatic leader, Fidel Castro, and gave its tacit approval to the coup that led to the assassination of President Ngo Dinh Diem and the ouster of South Vietnam’s government.

Lyndon Johnson, Kennedy’s successor, physically assaulted much smaller public servants who irritated him at the age of six.

After Lester Pearson, the Nobel Peace Prize winner, protested the US bombing of North Vietnam, a drunken Johnson called Canada’s diminutive prime minister to Camp David for a heated discussion.

Apparently, Johnson allegedly grabbed Pearson by the shirt collar, twisted it, and yelled, “You pissed on my rug,” before grabbing the prime minister.

An angry Johnson shoved the then-Chairman of the Federal Reserve William Martin against a wall in the same year because he had raised interest rates against the president’s wishes.

Bill Martin doesn’t care that boys are dying in Vietnam, Johnson yelled.

Salvador Allende, Chile’s democratically elected socialist president, was ordered by that affluent of presidential probity, Richard Nixon.

Trump’s fiery remarks to Zelenskyy come off as somewhat temperate, and Nixon’s obscene anti-Semitism makes that comparison look a little skunky. He claimed on video that “most Jews are disloyal” and that Washington “is full of Jews.”

Trump was right, whether the wailing pundits and TV personalities are willing to admit it or not. Great television was created by the spectacular Oval Office fireworks.

This time, as it turned out, we had access to another “gangster” president’s astonishing, historically-making words and deeds in real-time.

Source: Aljazeera