{"id":46832,"date":"2017-10-11T05:54:16","date_gmt":"2017-10-11T05:54:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/?p=46832"},"modified":"2017-10-11T05:54:16","modified_gmt":"2017-10-11T05:54:16","slug":"for-trump-the-reality-show-has-never-ended","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/news\/for-trump-the-reality-show-has-never-ended.html","title":{"rendered":"For Trump, the Reality Show Has Never Ended"},"content":{"rendered":"

For Trump, the Reality Show Has Never Ended<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n

For Trump, the Reality Show Has Never Ended:- Over the weekend, President Trump was accused by a Republican senator of running the White House like a \u201creality show.\u201d In the 48 hours that followed, this is how the president rebutted the characterization.<\/span><\/p>\n

He called out the offending senator for being short and sounding like \u201ca fool.\u201d He challenged his secretary of state to an I.Q. contest and insisted he would win. He celebrated the downfall of a critic who was suspended from her job. And his first wife and third wife waged a public war of words over who was really his first lady.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mr. Trump\u2019s West Wing has always seemed to be the crossroads between cutthroat politics and television drama, presided over by a seasoned showman who has made a career of keeping the audience engaged and coming back for more. Obsessed by ratings and always on the hunt for new story lines, Mr. Trump leaves the characters on edge, none of them ever really certain whether they might soon be voted off the island.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAbsolutely, I see those techniques playing out,\u201d said Laurie Ouellette, a communications professor at the University of Minnesota who has studied reality television extensively. \u201cReality TV is known for its humiliation tactics and its aggressive showmanship and also the idea that either you\u2019re in or you\u2019re out, with momentum building to the final decision on who stays and who goes.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Among those on the in-or-out bubble in this week\u2019s episode was Senator Bob Corker of Tennessee, the frustrated Republican who described \u2014 and derided \u2014 the conversion of the White House into a virtual set for \u201cThe Apprentice\u201d and, for good measure, expressed concern in a weekend interview with The New York Times that the president could stumble the country into a nuclear war.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mr. Trump, who hosted \u201cThe Apprentice\u201d on NBC for 14 seasons, dismissed Mr. Corker on Tuesday by mocking his height and suggesting he had somehow been conned. \u201cThe Failing @nytimes set Liddle\u2019 Bob Corker up by recording his conversation,\u201d Mr. Trump wrote. \u201cWas made to sound a fool, and that\u2019s what I am dealing with!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

In labeling Mr. Corker \u201cliddle,\u201d the president was evidently returning to a theme. He considered Mr. Corker for secretary of state during the transition after last year\u2019s election but was reported to have told associates that Mr. Corker, at 5-foot-7, was too short to be the nation\u2019s top diplomat. Instead, Mr. Trump picked Rex W. Tillerson, who is several inches taller but whose own relationship with the president has deteriorated to the point that he was said to have called Mr. Trump a \u201cmoron.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Mr. Tillerson initially did not deny it, but later he had a spokeswoman insist that he did not say it. Mr. Trump chose to believe the denial, or at least said he did, but in an interview published Tuesday, he insisted that even if it was true, he could prove that he was actually smarter than his secretary of state.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s fake news,\u201d Mr. Trump told Forbes magazine. \u201cBut if he did that, I guess we\u2019ll have to compare I.Q. tests. And I can tell you who is going to win.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Mr. Trump later denied that he had demeaned his secretary of state. \u201cI didn\u2019t undercut anybody. I don\u2019t believe in undercutting people,\u201d he told reporters, in a comment that must have amused the many people he has undercut since taking office. Asked if he still had confidence in Mr. Tillerson, Mr. Trump said simply, \u201cYes.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

At the time, Mr. Trump was sitting next to Henry Kissinger, the former secretary of state who happened to be visiting the Oval Office on Tuesday. To be sure, Mr. Kissinger would hardly tower over Mr. Corker on the basketball court, but Mr. Trump, perhaps wisely, did not risk challenging the former diplomat to an I.Q. contest.<\/span><\/p>\n

After the meeting with Mr. Kissinger, the president headed to a lunch with Mr. Tillerson, who was joined by a mediator, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the White House press secretary, said they \u201chad a great visit\u201d and denied that Mr. Trump was serious about the I.Q. test. \u201cHe made a joke, nothing more than that,\u201d she said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mr. Trump was not joking when he took a shot earlier in the day at Jemele Hill, the ESPN host who has called him a white supremacist and was suspended on Monday for suggesting a boycott of the Dallas Cowboys\u2019 advertisers if the team punished players who protested racial injustice by kneeling during the national anthem.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWith Jemele Hill at the mike, it is no wonder ESPN ratings have \u2018tanked,\u2019 in fact, tanked so badly it is the talk of the industry!\u201d Mr. Trump wrote on Twitter.<\/span><\/p>\n

He made no mention of the other dust-up in his household. In an interview aired on Monday to promote her new memoir, Ivana Trump, his first wife, told ABC News that \u201cI\u2019m basically first Trump wife, O.K.? I\u2019m first lady, O.K.?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

That did not sit well with Melania Trump, his third wife and the actual first lady, who issued a retort through a spokeswoman dismissing what she called \u201cattention-seeking and self-serving noise.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Andy Cohen, the creator of the \u201cReal Housewives\u201d reality television show franchise, found that too rich. \u201cThis is actually happening,\u201d he wrote on Twitter. \u201cAll the wives are fighting. Even I AM SPEECHLESS.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Mr. Trump\u2019s gibe at Mr. Corker echoed his name calling during the presidential campaign when he labeled Senator Marco Rubio of Florida \u201cLittle Marco,\u201d Senator Ted Cruz of Texas \u201cLyin\u2019 Ted\u201d and Hillary Clinton \u201cCrooked Hillary.\u201d He has used belittling nicknames to diminish political foes since taking office, as well \u2014 think \u201cCryin\u2019 Chuck\u201d Schumer, \u201cPsycho Joe\u201d Scarborough and \u201cLittle Rocket Man\u201d Kim Jong-un \u2014 but has generally avoided doing so with powerful Republican committee chairmen who control appointments and legislation.<\/span><\/p>\n

It was not clear what Mr. Trump meant when he said The Times set up Mr. Corker by recording him. Angry that Mr. Corker had suggested he was an agent of \u201cchaos,\u201d Mr. Trump lashed out at the senator on Sunday by saying he \u201cdidn\u2019t have the guts\u201d to run for another term. A Times reporter then interviewed Mr. Corker by telephone and recorded the call with the senator\u2019s knowledge and consent. Mr. Corker\u2019s staff also recorded the call, and he said he wanted The Times to do the same.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI know they\u2019re recording it, and I hope you are, too,\u201d Mr. Corker told the reporter.<\/span><\/p>\n

During the interview, Mr. Corker said Mr. Trump\u2019s advisers were struggling to keep the president under control. \u201cI know for a fact that every single day at the White House, it\u2019s a situation of trying to contain him,\u201d he said. He also said Mr. Trump\u2019s reckless statements could put the country on a path \u201ctowards World War III.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Mr. Trump on Tuesday rejected the suggestion that he was risking a nuclear war. \u201cWe were on the wrong path before,\u201d he said, presumably referring to North Korea. \u201cAll you have to do is take a look. If you look over the last 25 years through numerous administrations, we were on a path to a very big problem, a problem like this world has never seen. We\u2019re on the right path right now, believe me.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

But what a path. Ms. Ouellette, who has written or edited several books on reality television, including \u201cBetter Living Through Reality TV,\u201d said Mr. Trump the president had gone even further than Mr. Trump the reality show star ever did.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThis has exceeded what would have been allowed on \u2018The Apprentice,\u2019\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s almost a magnification. It\u2019s like reality TV unleashed. Yes, he was good at it, but I always felt like he had to be reined in in order not to mess up the formula. Here, he doesn\u2019t have that same sort of constraint.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Source:-\u00a0https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2017\/10\/10\/us\/politics\/trump-corker-feud-tweet-liddle-bob.html<\/span><\/p>\n

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