Trump Dresses First Lady In Green Screen To Bait Critics And Sow Distraction
Thursday, the final night of the Republican National Convention, Trump delivered a speech “riddled with lies”¹, but who can remember? Critics are too busy having fun with the toy Trump offered them: Melania.
When the President and the First Lady strode down the red carpet and approached the speakers podium no one could escape being distracted by the neon green dress Melania wore. In an otherwise dark and somber colored sea of navy and red the First Lady’s attire shone out like highlighter on the page of a book. With Trump’s media savvy and the propaganda team he has working for him², there’s no way that was unintentional.
Why? Why would the ringmaster of the circus that is American politics want to distract attention from himself? It’s the classic magicians trick of misdirection, “a form of deception in which the performer draws audience attention to one thing to distract it from another”³. Just. Another. Lie.
There are plenty of things the President would like to distract attention from. How about the 185,852 American lives lost to the Coronavirus, and counting⁴? Or the unceasing murders of people of color by police officers⁵? Over 15 million people unemployed⁶? Ok, sure, some of these statistics did end up on the dress, but still in the context of a joke, which is not how these issues deserve to be treated.
Trump is a narcissist⁷ and an entertainer, as long as he can keep us laughing and having fun, he’s more than happy to sacrifice his wife to the masses. By taking the bait, critics literally pinned all of Trump’s crimes on his wife, classic. And bonus for Trump 2020: Melania’s dress-capades are now intermingled on the internet, and in our imaginations, with the Queen of England’s, a comparison that is surely ideal.
¹ Headlines, Democracy Now (2020). Trump Assails Biden’s “Socialist Agenda” in RNC Acceptance Speech Riddled With Lies [Article]. https://www.democracynow.org/2020/8/28/headlines/trump_assails_bidens_socialist_agenda_in_rnc_acceptance_speech_riddled_with_lies
² Badash, D. (2020).‘Propaganda machine’ Kayleigh McEnany blasted for false claim Trump has ‘great record’ on LGBTQ issues [Article]. https://www.rawstory.com/2020/07/propaganda-machine-kayleigh-mcenany-blasted-for-false-claim-trump-has-great-record-on-lgbtq-issues/
³ Wikipedia contributors. (2020, February 9). Misdirection (magic). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 17:30, August 28, 2020, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Misdirection_%28magic%29
⁵ Frey, Z. (2020). Police Murders of Black People: Has the World Really Woken Up?[Article]. https://filtermag.org/police-black-murders-justice/
⁶ Hansen, C. (2020). 1 Million More Americans File for Jobless Benefits [Article]. https://www.usnews.com/news/national-news/articles/2020-08-27/1-million-more-americans-file-for-jobless-benefits
⁷ Crump, J.(2020). Trump has narcissistic personality disorder, says leading psychoanalyst [Article]. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/donald-trump-narcissistic-personality-disorder-mary-trump-john-zinner-bandy-x-lee-a9665856.html
