It isn’t easy to invent rituals. But the president of the United States struggled to do that on Monday evening, choosing a new form of spectacle over such timeworn but effective presidential gestures as offering consolation, listening to grievance and calming the country.
After unleashing the National Guard and law enforcement agents on peaceful protesters outside the White House, Donald Trump traversed Lafayette Square to the north, where he stood for a few minutes holding a Bible outside the shuttered parish house of St. John’s Church, which was damaged by a brief fire in the basement during protests on Sunday. He held the book awkwardly in both hands, looking at it briefly as if to double check that he had brought the right one, and then held it aloft, like the raised arm of a victorious boxer. Behind him, a church sign read: “All are welcome.”
The walk, the display of the Bible and the return to the White House through a phalanx of armored law enforcement personnel were quickly edited into a surreal video with a soaring soundtrack. But nothing quite worked, and though its producers clearly aspired to the inspirational bombast of Steven Spielberg or perhaps Leni Riefenstahl, they could barely muster a second-rate pastiche of Charlie Chaplin. Continue reading.
