Sunday, June 10, 2018

A Picture for our Times


There are so many pictures from the Trump era that seem to capture the whole catastrophe of his tenure, but this one may go down as the single most quintessential.


Trump sits petulantly with arms crossed while the rest of the G-7 stand. This illustrates his combination of recalcitrance, dominance politics (or, possibly, low energy), and childishness. The look on his face isn’t performative, as so often, but looks like he’s tuned out. The meeting has passed the 15 minutes of his maximum attention span, and he’s thinking about calling Hannity. Merkel’s expression seems to contain both frustration and resignation. Shinzo Abe’s expression is priceless and is what really makes the photo iconic—it’s what most of the world thinks about this insufferable buffoon. Bolton is gazing off in a different direction, away from the group and seems to be muttering to himself—one imagines he's rehearsing his Fox News talking points about why this abject debacle was another yuge win for the Donald.

The whole thing is composed so well it looks like a Hopper painting.

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