There must have been reasons for Eric, Donnie Jr, Tiffany and the rest to have accompanied the president on his state visit. Does the answer lie in their social media postings?
How did the Trump family’s UK state visit look from social media?
Charlie, via email
I’m glad that you have emphasised that this was the Trump family’s state visit, as opposed to just the president’s, because this was very much – I just need to cue up Sly and the Family Stone – a family affairrrrr! Zzzzip! Record scratch! Sorry, that was a bad booking for this party, given that, according to the New Yorker, whenever the man now improbably known as President Trump would visit his casino in New Jersey, “the bosses would order all the black people off the floor”. So come on, Stones: you can leave through the fire exit, and be quick about it, please. This is a presidential issue.
Quite why US taxpayers were funding Trump’s four very definitely adult children to come on a family holiday to London has never been explained by a White House administration whose only consistent policy has been “never explain, never apologise”. Yet, in an administrative snafu, someone with self-awareness has been hired to run the White House’s Instagram accountand he or she notably cut the Trump juniors out of all photos posted of National Lampoon’s London Vacation. Even Ivanka only makes a fleeting, possibly accidental appearance, even though, as we all know, she has a very important job in the White House that she totally got on her own merit.
Yet while the White House itself might have been strangely reluctant to record this made-for-TV sequel to the 90s comedy King Ralph, the Trump juniors were documenting their every move online with the enthusiasm of, well, hopelessly basic American embarrassments. And given that this presidency was pretty much won on social media, it makes sense to recall its high points the same way.
View the complete article by Hadley Freeman on The Guardian website here.