If it weren’t because it’s real, because this happens in the Oval Office of the White House, in the so-called Resolution Desk (the resolution desk, where orders to bomb anyone are signed), the image illustrating this article would seem taken from one of those screwball comedies with canned laughter so typical of American television.
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No, it is not a comedy. That is an image offered by the Fox network, which in its eagerness to publicize everything President Donald Trump does or says, showcases like no one else what many call the decline of the American empire.
Either he sleeps or insults or expresses his authoritarianism seeking to put his name on buildings
“A photograph is a piece of space and also of time,” as Susan Sontag states in her book On Photography (1977).
That scene has only reinforced the idea of the decadence of a president who falls asleep and nods off when he loses prominence – like a doll that stops when the string runs out – and, therefore, of an entire country.
Either he sleeps or insults or expresses his authoritarianism seeking to put his name on buildings or erect a triumphal arch in Roman evocation.
For much less, Fox turned Joe Biden into a demented president, incapable of leading the world’s greatest power. However, about Trump’s naps or mental lapses, they don’t say a word. In any case, they insist he is an extraordinary man who at 80 years old works day and night with boldness. It recalls one of those tiles from cheap souvenir shops: “The boss doesn’t sleep, he just closes his eyes.”
Fox News, by broadcasting everything Trump does, shows like no one else the decline of the U.S. government.
“We are watching the president mature and rot before our very eyes,” writes David Rothkopt in The Daily Beast on the occasion of that snapshot taken at an event last Monday where Trump signed an order to limit vaccines for minors. “If he were a banana, right now he would be in the trash or, at most, on his way to becoming an ingredient for banana bread,” he insists.
To one side of that snapshot, the vase girl, proud to be there, although what is happening seems neither to interest nor matter to her, while the speaker is Robert F. Kennedy Jr., U.S. government Secretary of Health, the same who once confessed that a worm ate part of his brain, claims to have proof that vaccines cause autism, although no one has seen it and scientists, on the other hand, show evidence that this is false and could pose a danger to children.
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Kennedy, with that particular harsh voice, which sounds as if while speaking he were pinning needles into his audience’s ears, raises his tone in vain to awaken the only spectator he cares about: the boss.
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Not even that. There was no way to get him out of the placidity of the nap. It is not the first time, far from it, that the president naps in the Oval Office. It is already common. On this occasion, however, it is difficult to apply what official spokespeople have said other times that Trump only closes his eyes to think. This time a sleep so deep came over him that he collapsed on his chair and his head bobbed.
Dr. Jonathan Reiner, who was Vice President Dick Cheney’s cardiologist, published an article last Wednesday in The New York Times where he expresses concern about Trump’s health. Among other symptoms, Reiner highlights the repeated appearances in which he falls asleep.
Regarding this issue, Dr. Reiner asks: “There are several possible causes for the president’s symptoms, some of which could have serious complications if untreated. Has the president’s medical team identified the origin of this problem? And how are they addressing it?” The White House responded with an outburst.
More and more historians draw parallels between Nero and Trump
“A photograph is always more a question than an answer,” according to the philosophy of the fashionable Italian photographer and portraitist Paolo Roversi.
And when there are no answers, the gaps are filled. Images like this only encourage the parallel between Trump’s decline and that of the Roman emperor Nero, something increasingly frequent in academic media. That degradation comes from the egomaniacal use of power. They say Trump gets bored not being the protagonist.
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