Donald Trump faces the hostile media in the Rose Garden. Ultimately, he had to run away from them.
Despite all the talk about Donald Trump's supposed projection of strength, he consistently represents himself as a powerless victim.
Powerlessness is a key aspect of the Trump narrative because it simultaneously excuses any inaction and validates the sense of victimization — the lack of personal and group agency — deeply felt by many Americans, particularly Trump’s base.
His truncated press conference on May 11, a lovely spring Monday in the Rose Garden, provided another in a long line of examples of this signature Trump narrative embracing his own victimhood.
The mission of the day was to stage an event portraying Trump as masterful and victorious in the battle to provide COVID-19 testing for all Americans.
Like most of Trump’s stories, this one isn’t true, of course. Still, it’s a good story and he was determined to tell it. But Trump famously lost his battle to control this story when three reporters, led by CBS News’ Weijia Jiang, refused to play along with the propaganda show. Jiang asked Trump why he kept comparing the U.S. testing program to testing levels in other countries — why he portrays it as “an international competition” when so many are dying every day in America. Trump called it a “nasty question,” and added, “Maybe that’s a question you should ask China. Don’t ask me. Ask China that question.”
“It can happen. It’s the hidden enemy.”
Jiang then tried to press Trump about the potential for racism inherent in his response: Why was he directing her, in particular, a Chinese American, to take her question to China? When Trump tried to pivot to a different reporter, he encountered a rare solidarity in the press corps — no one would accommodate him by changing the subject with a new question. Appearing frustrated, Trump abruptly said good-bye and disappeared into the White House. Robert Mackey described the whole series of events the next day in The Intercept, concluding that Trump “ran away” from the reporters.
Unnoticed by commentators, before Trump ran away, he was asked a similarly pointed question, but by a friendlier reporter — John Roberts, chief White House correspondent for Fox News. Roberts asked whether the lack of precautions in the West Wing led to the recent outbreak of COVID-19 there.
Trump responded: "I don't think the system broke down at all. It can happen. It's the hidden enemy." In other words, he said he was powerless to stop the virus and blameless in its spread. There was nothing he could have done. (Watch Trump’s answer in the C-SPAN clip below.)
Trump actually projects powerlessness and victimhood more often than strength. And his base, who see themselves (mostly accurately) as defenseless victims of a rigged system, identify with Trump's powerlessness. So, by telling stories that implicitly acknowledge his inability to cope — with the virus, the media, the scientists, the whole establishment — Trump is actually strengthening his bond with his supporters.
On this occasion, Trump went one step further and added an overt act of powerlessness — running away from the media — to dramatize his narrative of powerlessness.
This is the role he has chosen.
In this video clip, Donald Trump acknowledges he is powerless to keep COVID-19 out of the West Wing.
