Washington is a stage, Trump is the producer

Washington

IT has been said once that Washington, DC, was like Hollywood for ugly people. But some would counter that is not the case anymore, and that in the age of 24/7 media coverage, politicians have no choice but at least try to look good when sometimes millions of viewers watch them live on television.

But the trend of turning politics into a form of show-business or media entertainment is not really new. After all, Democratic President John F Kennedy looked like a matinee idol and his wife, Jackie, carried herself like a movie star. And Republican President Ronald Reagan was actually a former Hollywood film actor, albeit a B grade one, who seemed to be doing a great job playing the role of an American president.

The pressure on politicians to become more telegenic was growing in the 1980s when the C-SPAN cable television network started to provide daily live coverage of congressional proceedings and White House press conferences, turning what was happening in Washington into a TV reality show. That in turn created a demand for television drama and comedy shows in which the heroes and the villains were politicians in Washington, House of Cards and The Veep being two prime examples.

But the decision by American voters to relocate a former host of a popular TV reality show to the White House brought the process of Washington-imitating-Hollywood to a new level, blurring the already thin line between politics and showbusiness.

That dramatic turnabout became quite evident last Tuesday when what was expected to be a close-door private negotiation session at the White House among four of the most powerful politicians in Washington was transformed instead into the television event of the week.

The two top Democratic congressional leaders, House Minority Leader and to soon to become the Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi from California, and Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer from New York were brought into the Oval Office of the White House to what was scheduled to be a meeting with President Trump and Vice-President Mike Pence, the goal being to try to bridge their differences over the White House's proposal to construct a wall on the US border with Mexico.

Since announcing that he would run for the White House, President Trump placed his plan for a border wall on the top of his policy agenda, a pledge that symbolised his commitment to protect the nation against the threat of illegal immigration. He even suggested during the presidential campaign that Mexico would supposedly end up paying the costs of building the wall.

But after spending two years in office, with his Republican Party controlling both the Senate and the House of Representatives, President Trump has yet to deliver on his signature campaign promise. He has requested US$5 billion from Congress for the wall; but the Democrats agree to approve only 20 per cent of that sum, and even some Republicans are not excited about the idea.

So now a few weeks before the Democrats are scheduled to take over the House of Representatives, the president is facing an angry political base that wants to see at least some progress over the building of the wall. Its members warn that a failure on the part of the president to make good on the promise could make it difficult for him to mobilise his supporters during the 2020 presidential campaign.

Hence, President Trump, recognising that he now may have the last chance to demonstrate to his base that he was doing something about the wall, decided to produce a made-for-television show that would help put his Democratic opponents on Capitol Hill on defence, as he blames them for standing in his way to construct the wall.

The result was a 17-minute media event that allowed the world to watch President Trump clashing with the Democratic leaders and threatening that unless he gets his way he would blow up a political time bomb in the form of a partial shutdown of the federal government when it begins to run out of money on Dec 21. That would mean that thousands of federal workers will not get paid just before Christmas. Enjoy the holidays!

As the the president and his guests raised their voices and pointed fingers, interrupting each other while silent Vice-President Pence was watching the spectacle, it was still not clear what was President Trump's game plan.

Was he really going to allow the government to shut down or was he considering the possibility of making some deal with the Democrats? Does he even have a game plan or was he just throwing a "temper tantrum" as Senator Schumer described it in order to ensure once again that he continues to dominate the media coverage.

At this stage, there is no sign that the two sides are close to a deal. In fact, allowing the television cameras to remain in the Oval Office during the "negotiations" only ensured that they would fail and it certainly underscored the divisions over the planned wall.

Moreover, President Trump's attempt to somehow shame Representative Pelosi and Senator Schumer while all the world was watching may have backfired against the producer of the show.

While President Trump seemed to exude anger and intent on creating acrimony, the Democratic leaders looked relaxed and projected a sense of confidence as they lectured their host about how the legislative process worked and explained to him that in the real world, as opposed to the imaginary one that he was trying to create, the president just does not have the votes to secure the US$5 billion he requested from Congress. He may therefore have to come up with a new ending to his movie.