Trump and Kennedy: Trendsetters
Presidential fashion choices for solemn occasions.
It has long been said that John Kennedy killed the tophat in American men’s fashion when he took his off for his inaugural speech. While almost certainly not true, he helped cement the trend.
His latest successor is apparently following suit, wearing a branded baseball cap to attend the Dignified Transfer of the remains of six soldiers killed under his command.
WaPo (“Trump confronts ‘bad part of war’ as troops killed in Iran conflict return home”):
The remains of the first six service members killed in the war with Iran were carried off a dull-gray Air Force transport plane on Saturday as President Donald Trump and other senior U.S. leaders silently saluted.
[…]
“It’s a very sad day, and I’m glad we paid our respects. It’s a tough situation,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One after the solemn event in Dover.
“I hate to do it, but it’s a part of war,” Trump said. “It’s a sad part of war. It’s the bad part of war.”
The other times Trump traveled here to witness the return of the remains of U.S. service members killed overseas, they died in wars he didn’t start.
But the six who were carried off the C-17 Globemaster on Saturday perished in Kuwait in a war of Trump’s choice — one that several of his predecessors considered and dismissed.
“This is a short excursion into something that should have been done for 47 years,” Trump said Saturday, comparing it to taking out a cancer.
Trump spent more than an hour on Saturday afternoon meeting with the families of the fallen soldiers, whose operation center in Kuwait was struck by an Iranian drone six days earlier. Then, in a dark blue suit, a bold red tie and a white baseball cap that said “USA” on the front in gold stitching, he saluted silently.
[…]
His task in Dover was complicated. A president receiving Americans felled by war isn’t there as the head of a political party or one side of a polarized nation, but as the head of state, embodying the country as a whole.
It’s noteworthy that no one else in Trump’s party was similarly attired (though the military personnel were in their service caps).
It’s also noteworthy that this is the same cap Trump wore when he announced the war. He did put on a tie for this.
We need Robin Givhan to weigh in on this.
He sells that as merchandise so he’s profiting off their deaths which he caused by starting the war, which he started while funneling taxpayer money into his pockets partying like Great Gatsby at his private golf club with millionaire Republican donors. Everything he does is vile and obscene.
Trump’s a slump-shouldered lout, and someone should yank that stupid cap off his head and…never mind.
I thought the strike that killed 165 school children and Trump claiming that it was the Iranians who did it was worse, to be fair.
And starting an illegal war that might throttle the global economy for no apparent reason at all is even worse than that, IMO.
Trump’s shitty little hat kinda pales compared to these things.
Just another symptom of the stupidest time in US history. There must be some explanation for this? Something similar to lead poisoning that we simply don’t understand as of yet?
@Daryl:
One aspect, I think, is that anti-intellectualism, which was always a thing in American culture, got systematically boosted by the Murdochs of this world from the moment the Right starting running out of serious ideas back in 1980 or so.
Another thing is the worship of wealth.
Trump is someone in which these two things get almost perfectly combined.
This administration did not drop out of Heaven, it was voted into office.
“It’s the bad part of war.”
I guess the “good part” is getting to play with all those marvelous toys.
@Hume’s Ghost: The degree to which he advertises merch during official activities is utterly disgusting.
What I wouldn’t give to go even 3 days in a row without being embarrassed to my core that a plurality of my fellow citizens put this scumbag into the White House. Or rather what I wouldn’t give to go 1 day without being furious that a majority of my fellow citizens are powerless to contain the damage this scumbag’s administration is doing to our country and the world.
@Steven L. Taylor: I’m becoming fairly radicalized on this particular issue; since he’s privatizing/monetizing the presidency I want the reverse to happen, taxpayers get back the money he’s made off of us. He’s making money off of every pronouncement he makes as US president on the social media company he owns but the presidency does not belong to him it belongs to the American people.
@charontwo:
So true; 77 million Americans voted for The Idiocracy, they (we) are getting all of THAT.
Also, I can’t decide if Mike Judge’s ‘Idiocracy’ was a sequel or a prequel.
The cap is a trivial matter IMHO. It’s Trump’s version of Zelenskyy’s signature attire, and at least on this occasion it carried a unifying insignia. Nevertheless Fox, in an extraordinary decision, recognised the potential problem and posted a picture of Trump taken on a completely different occasion last year to accompany the story as if it was taken today.
https://x.com/BadFoxGraphics/status/2030767433955561696
@Hume’s Ghost: https://www.notus.org/donald-trump/trump-organization-files-trademark-applications-america-250
This. This is a great example of what I’m talking about. He is robbing us, this is theft. As a society we should demand restitution.
In all fairness, those soldiers would not have been honored by that comb-over being blown entirely to one side of his head by the wind. It has happened to him before and we’ve all seen the pics. Rif Raff from Rocky Horror.