Why is this man smiling?

[amolitor]

Trump grins and gives a thumbs-up as a reflex when there's a lens pointed at him. It is his "camera face" (we all have a "camera face"). It is the job of his handlers to make sure he does something else in this circumstance, and they failed.

Whether Trump is intractable or not is irrelevant, they failed.

[Robert Roaldi]

Why?

Always look on the bright side. The baby is just a couple of months old. It has no understanding of recent events, has no concept of father and mother, or of birth and death, and will never have any personal memory of this tragic shooting. Most people can't recall anything about their lives that occurred before the age of 3.

However, I suspect this photo of the child being held in the arms of the wife of the POTUS will become an iconic image in the home as the child gradually grows and learns, and the positive attitude of the President shown in the image, smiling with thumbs up, might encourage the child to work hard and achieve something worthwhile in life.

The focus of the image is on the survival of the child, not the death of its parents. If Trump and Melania were standing next to a coffin containing the child's parents, then smiling with thumbs up would of course be very inappropriate. Hope you Trump-bashers can see the difference. 

That's a reach, I'd say.

[Bart_van_der_Wolf]

Trump grins and gives a thumbs-up as a reflex when there's a lens pointed at him. It is his "camera face" (we all have a "camera face"). It is the job of his handlers to make sure he does something else in this circumstance, and they failed.

Whether Trump is intractable or not is irrelevant, they failed.

You're very optimistic. After they heard that none of the surviving victims wanted to pose with the President, they got hold of a defenseless orphaned baby, and posed for a shot that would look pretty ...
 
Disgusting. And a totally failed media performance, but mostly a disgusting display of a lack of empathy.

[amolitor]

Pointing out that the president is a sociopath, while true, isn't very interesting. They've all been sociopaths. It's just that some have been packaged better than others.

Trump's packaging is extremely sloppy, but this turns out to be very appealing, and broadly so, for complicated and interesting reasons.

So I guess it's fair to ask if Trump actually is badly packaged. Perhaps it's not incompetence but genius? It feels accidental to me, and my experience suggests that there's rarely a super intelligent conspiracy hidden underneath. But who knows?

This picture will appeal to his base just fine, and not because they are idiots, rubes, and racists.

[Alan Klein]

Didn't you ever see the cop who saved some guy visiting the guy in the hospital where the guy had his leg removed because of the incident?  Everyone  including the doctors, victim and cop are smiling and yucking it up in appreciation that he's still alive. 

The baby survived.  That's reason for joy and gratitude.  Of course, the thumb was raised and everyone smiled.  It was a victory over death.

[Robert Roaldi]

The baby survived.  That's reason for joy and gratitude.  Of course, the thumb was raised and everyone smiled.  It was a victory over death.

You might want to think about that a little longer.

[Alan Klein]

You might want to think about that a little longer.

Nothing to think about. They're smiling because the baby survived.    You ought to be happy too.   Do you think Melania is an evil person who smiled for some nefarious political purpose?  Enough of biased news reporting by The Atlantic and The NY Times, both Trump haters. You're looking for something to bitch about because it's Trump.  We understand the game. 

[Bart_van_der_Wolf]

Nothing to think about. They're smiling because the baby survived.

Without parents.

[Robert Roaldi]

Nothing to think about. They're smiling because the baby survived.    You ought to be happy too.   Do you think Melania is an evil person who smiled for some nefarious political purpose?  Enough of biased news reporting by The Atlantic and The NY Times, both Trump haters. You're looking for something to bitch about because it's Trump.  We understand the game.

I could say that you're looking for any excuse because it's Trump. We understand the game.

Look, I get it that a camera can catch a moment that's later displayed out of context. We all understand that game too. And I am in no doubt that some of the media at least are looking exactly for that kind of click bait. My point is why is he providing it? This occasion, if no other, should be solemn and serious, but instead they looked for a photo op. Stop insulting our intelligence with third-rate excuses that the smile and thumb's up gesture were celebrations of life. That's lame beyond belief. I am not even attributing evil to the guy, what I'm saying is that it was repulsive behaviour under the circumstances, he appears to be completely morally tone deaf.

[Alan Klein]

So you think Melania and the two men smiled for some nefarious purpose.

[Robert Roaldi]

So you think Melania and the two men smiled for some nefarious purpose.

I'm done with non-sequiturs, changes in subject and deflections.

[amolitor]

So you think Melania and the two men smiled for some nefarious purpose.

No. Nobody thinks that. Some people think he's smiling because he's so happy the baby survived, and others think he is smiling because he's an idiot with empathy of a brick.

I am pretty sure you know this, and are simply trying to fan flames here. The only alternate explanation I can think of is that you are, um, inattentive might cover it.

[amolitor]

Here's a question:

Does anyone think that Donald and Melania's expressions are natural emotional reactions, as opposed to a performance for the camera?

I mean this in a non-judgemental way. I see it as obviously a performance, but precisely the kind of performance every politician (and most people, in fact) do for the camera. Sometimes the performance matches the heart, sometimes not, but it is a performance.

[Jeremy Roussak]

A discussion which was near-pointless from its outset has lost what little interest it had.

Jeremy