The Atlantic Almost Gets It
In Donald Trump’s administration, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem rotates through various costumes—firefighting gear for drills with the United States Coast Guard, a cowboy hat and horse for a jaunt with Border Patrol agents in Texas, a bulletproof ICE vest for a dawn raid in New York City. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth posts photos of himself doing snowy push-ups with U.S. troops in Poland and deadlifting with them in predawn Germany. And FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino spars with agents on the wrestling mats of Quantico.
Kristi Noem is a particular target:
Noem, who has earned herself several dismissive, Mattel-inspired nicknames—“Border Control Barbie,” “ICE Barbie”—is perhaps the most conspicuous offender. She has been photographed behind the controls of both a Coast Guard boat and a Coast Guard plane, donned a helmet and Border Patrol fatigues for an ATV tour along the southern border, and posed in cargo pants and an ICE vest. In a social-media video, she wielded a tricked-out automatic rifle, the M4 muzzle disconcertingly pointed at the head of the agent directly to her left.
But the latest role for Secretary Noem isn't really cosplay:
An illegal immigrant was arrested Saturday for stealing Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s pricey Gucci bag containing $3,000 in cash and other personal items – and a second migrant suspect is still on the loose, according to sources.
Noem, 53, was on an Easter outing with her family at The Capital Burger in Washington, DC, when the masked thief stole the luxury shoulder bag, which also contained her driver’s license, passport, DHS badge and apartment keys on April 20.
. . . The perp, who is believed to be part of a large east coast robbery crew, is expected to appear in court early next week as law enforcement hunt for his accomplice, sources said. Officials are also looking for a second suspect who is also reportedly an illegal migrant.
Unless this was elaborately staged as some sort of Reichstag fire-type provocation, Noem simply underwent an all-too-common event-- she was victimized by a criminal illegal -- but then the perp was caught. And all this does is reinforce her own warnings:
Secretary Kristi Noem announced a nationwide and international multimillion-dollar ad campaign warning illegal aliens to leave our country now or face deportation with the inability to return to the United States. . . . “If you are a criminal alien considering entering America illegally: Don’t even think about it. If you come here and break our laws, we will hunt you down. Criminals are not welcome in the United States.”
Merriam-Webster defines cosplay:
the activity or practice of dressing up as a character from a work of fiction (such as a comic book, video game, or television show)
Wikipeida adds,
The term has been adopted as slang, often in politics, to mean someone pretending to play a role or take on a personality disingenuously.
On one hand, we might characterize Michael Dukakis's famous commercial from 1988 riding in a tank wearing a helmet with his name on it as true cosplay, because the message viewers immediately grasped was that Dukakis was not a macho type and wasn't comfortable. It was transparently disingenuous, and it couldn't have been worse for his campaign. But the Atlantic piece complains about Trump,
During his most recent campaign, he sported various working-class costumes to troll his political rivals. In October, mocking then–Vice President Kamala Harris’s claim that, as a college student, she had spent a summer working at a McDonald’s, Trump tied on a navy-and-gold apron and served fries through a Philadelphia-area McDonald’s drive-through window. Later that month, in response to mumbled comments then-President Joe Biden made seeming to liken Trump supporters to “garbage,” Trump wore a neon-orange reflective vest and hopped into a white Trump-branded trash hauler in Green Bay, Wisconsin.
The problem is that Dukakis's ride on a tank was disastrous, it came off as inauthentic. Trump's brief stint at McDonald's or his ride on a garbage truck in a hi-vis vest were authentic, instantly perceived as such, and were boons to his campaign.Turn it around. What if Kamala Harris were to have pulled the same McDonald's stunt? On one hand, throughout her campaign she wore the understated hair style, wardrobe, and accessories of an upper-class white woman. On the other, even visiting convenience stores as a customer and not a worker behind the counter, she came off as awkward and staged. The same was true of Biden's visits to ice cream parlors.
Neither would have been seen as remotely authentic serving fries at McDonald's; body language woild have been a key factor. In the photo at the top of tis post, Trump is completely comfortable wearing an apron and is clearly enjoying what he's doing. Certainly part of the enjoyment is recognizing that neither Biden nor Kamala could pull off the same stunt. The fact is that part of politics is shakng hands and kissing babies, and Trump is good at it.
Let's move to the complaint about Pete Hegseth. that he "posts photos of himself doing snowy push-ups with U.S. troops in Poland and deadlifting with them in predawn Germany". Let's look back at prior defense secretaries. Lloyd Austin was a retired general who'd gone on to work in the defense-intelligence private establishment. Robert Gates, who serve under both Dubya and Obama, had a PhD in Russian and Soviet History and had been CIA Director.
Hegseth's role is meant to be in complete contrast, his assignment is to eliminiate DEI and transsexualism fromthe military, restore the confidence of the troops, and increase recruitment. Of course he's going to do things that relate to these tasks. On the other hand, he isn't dressing up as Rambo.
