The glorification of Trump — live!
The right embraces the president's power play
![President Trump.](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/fN5XjfnjS6DiMxK6YMLAnJ-415-80.jpg)
President Trump's speech was not the point of his State of the Union performance on Tuesday. This SOTU was about deeds more than words. It was, most basically, a display of power — and his supporters loved it.
By deeds, I don't mean his record in office, the "launch[ing of] the great American comeback" for which he claimed (often counterfactual) credit. Rather, I mean the deeds Trump did during the SOTU itself: his award of a scholarship to a Philadelphia girl, his conferral of the Medal of Freedom to radio host Rush Limbaugh, his recognition of the "true legitimate president of Venezuela," opposition leader Juan Guaidó, his surprise reunification of a military family separated by the war in Afghanistan.
"The SOTU is perhaps the greatest example of a meeting that could have been an email," tweeted a former colleague of mine, Zuri Davis, on Tuesday night. She's right about the address itself, little more than a formal iteration of the president's stump speech. But the spectacle Trump wanted, the dispensation of largesse to a lucky few, indeed the whole pageant of glorification of his authority all required the live event.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
![https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516-320-80.jpg)
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
This was not lost on Trump's fans, whose responses tended to focus on what Trump did at least as much as what he said. Only three of Breitbart's "top 10 moments" of the address were statements Trump made; the other seven were these staged vignettes with the audience. The Federalist's "13 key takeaways" were more policy-focused but similarly included plenty of revelry in Trump's use of his prop guests to manipulate attendant lawmakers and the American public. "By the time [Democrats] were refusing to clap for 100-year-old heroes such as Tuskegee Airman Brig. Gen. Charles McGee, the oppositional stance looked downright absurd," exulted author Mollie Hemingway, who concluded the speech left Democrats, fresh off a "humiliating" Iowa caucus, looking "small and petty" compared to the powerful Trump.
Nothing about this production was meant to communicate new information or ideas. And while it's not unusual for SOTUs to offer little in the way of fresh policy content, this year had a "very different type of stagecraft" from States of the Union past, argued University of Maine communications professor Michael Socolow. It was an active, real-time demonstration of presidential power. "It was the implicit message that the presidency bestows a kind of magic upon its holder," Socolow mused. "[Trump] demonstrated how he can literally change people's lives, and he did it live on TV."
Socolow is right, I think, about the central priority of the exercise of power. But Tuesday's stagecraft is not such an anomaly. It's a logical next step of the development of the imperial presidency. Trump's TV instincts can be blamed for the introduction of prizes — cash, a trip, public plaudits — to this annual television event, but he was only adding to the subtler changes of his predecessors.
Future presidents may lack Trump's personal theatricality, but they're unlikely to jettison these elements of exhibitionism, just as presidents after Harry Truman didn't take SOTU off TV and those after Ronald Reagan copied his innovation of prop guests. It isn't difficult to imagine a President Elizabeth Warren, frustrated with opposition from Congress or the courts to a college debt relief program, announcing the cancelation of a recent graduate's loans mid-SOTU 2022. Or we could see a President Bernie Sanders, as-yet unsuccessful in implementing Medicare-for-all, gruffly granting a gift of thousands of dollars for medical expenses to a cancer patient while railing against its necessity.
As the line between entertainment and politics thus blurs, it is increasingly worthwhile to refuse to watch these performances. That's not to say we shouldn't pay attention to them. It's simply, as I proposed a few years ago about Trump specifically, that we literally should not watch. The quick availability of transcripts in the internet age enables us to easily read presidential remarks, like the State of the Union and campaign rally speeches, instead of viewing them in video.
This is tedious but necessary if we want to fairly consider the content of politicians' claims and plans without being unduly swayed by the emotive manipulation of their presentation. Refusing to watch a president's melodramatics is one small way to detract from presidential power.
Create an account with the same email registered to your subscription to unlock access.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.
-
Ukraine's Olympians: going for gold in the line of fire
Under the Radar Hundreds of the country's athletes have died in battle, while those who remain deal with the psychological toll of war and prospect of Russian competitors
By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK Published
-
'Democrats now have a chance to present a vigorous, compelling case'
Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
By Justin Klawans, The Week US Published
-
What has Kamala Harris done as vice president?
In Depth It's not uncommon for the second-in-command to struggle to prove themselves in a role largely defined by behind-the-scenes work
By Theara Coleman, The Week US Published
-
How could J.D. Vance impact the special relationship?
Today's Big Question Trump's hawkish pick for VP said UK is the first 'truly Islamist country' with a nuclear weapon
By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK Published
-
Biden, Trump urge calm after assassination attempt
Speed Reads A 20-year-old gunman grazed Trump's ear and fatally shot a rally attendee on Saturday
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
Supreme Court rejects challenge to CFPB
Speed Read The court rejected a conservative-backed challenge to the way the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is funded
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
Arizona court reinstates 1864 abortion ban
Speed Read The law makes all abortions illegal in the state except to save the mother's life
By Rafi Schwartz, The Week US Published
-
Trump, billions richer, is selling Bibles
Speed Read The former president is hawking a $60 "God Bless the USA Bible"
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
The debate about Biden's age and mental fitness
In Depth Some critics argue Biden is too old to run again. Does the argument have merit?
By Grayson Quay Published
-
How would a second Trump presidency affect Britain?
Today's Big Question Re-election of Republican frontrunner could threaten UK security, warns former head of secret service
By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK Published
-
'Rwanda plan is less a deterrent and more a bluff'
Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
By The Week UK Published