Five years ago this month, on June 16, 2015, Donald Trump delivered one of the indelible images of 21st-century politics when he slowly descended a gold escalator to a rally announcing his candidacy for the presidency.
On Saturday, he delivered another iconic image, but not the sort he wanted to produce. Returning to the White House after a flop of a rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Trump stepped off Marine One with his collar unbuttoned, his signature red tie undone and hanging loosely around his neck, and his MAGA hat crumpled in his hand. He waved listlessly to the cameras and gave a perfunctory thumbs-up.
The New York Times saw a “defeated expression on his face,” and reported that he was furious about the meager crowd at his rally, as well as about a leak that six of his advance-team members had tested positive for the coronavirus. Who really knows what Trump was thinking in that moment? The president’s own feelings are largely beside the point. As Trump, a consummate marketer, has always known, appearances matter—and right now Trump looks like a loser.
David A. Graham: It’s slowly dawning on Trump that he’s losing
Even before the debacle in Tulsa, the week had been quietly miserable for the president. From his campaign to the coronavirus, from the economy to the courts, from polls to policy, Trump stumbled on every front. On June 13, he’d rescheduled the Tulsa rally for a day later out of deference to celebrations of Juneteenth, but only after taking a political beating for it. That concession was surprising because Trump hates backing down from anything, especially on matters of race.