Trump Did Publicly What Other U.S. Presidents Would Keep Private | Opinion

Psst. Over here. Over here.

Want to hear a trade secret?

Most journalists who cover the so-called “halls of power” in Washington, Ottawa, Canberra, London, Paris, and beyond prefer routine over spontaneity.

You see, predictability is easy. It’s comforting because most capital cities are mundane places where boring is not only an agreeable fact of life but also a prevailing state of mind.

That’s why the exaggerated reaction to the fiery exchange between U.S. President Donald Trump, Vice President JD Vance, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was so consistent with the White House press corps’ stubborn preference for the veneer of practiced civility over raw, impulsive truth.

Unlike so many pundits and columnists who rushed to familiar cable news networks to express their disbelief and shock over the “embarrassing spectacle” of America’s tactless commander-in-chief “humiliating” his “wartime hero” guest, I was captivated by the remarkable scenes unfolding live on my computer screen.

Instead of watching a scripted, forgettable meeting featuring smiling foreign dignitaries and heads of state visiting an overly polite president in the Oval Office, it was refreshing to witness a blatant display of the crudeness, rudeness, and brutishness of power politics—something that usually occurs far away from cameras and, consequently, reporters and the public.

They’ll be reluctant to admit it, but the sea of journalists who stood like mute mannequins while Trump, Vance, and Zelenskyy traded rhetorical blows for several intense rounds expected another tame, pedestrian day at work—just like so many others before it.

They know the predictable role they play in these choreographed pantomimes:

Step 1: Go to the Oval Office.

Step 2: Record the foreign head of state saying nice things about the U.S. president.

Step 3: Record the U.S. president saying nice things about the foreign head of state.

Step 4: Report that the U.S. president and the foreign head of state said nice things about each other.

Step 5: Later, call sources who say that, in private, the U.S. president and the foreign head of state did not say nice things about each other.

Step 6: Report, quoting anonymous sources, that despite the public niceties, the U.S. president and his grinning guest actually can’t stand one another.

That, in essence, was the formulaic arc of much of the reporting after French President Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer visited Washington last week to appease Trump.

True to his unorthodox nature—to put it charitably—Trump and his combative vice president upended that traditional script, either intentionally or instinctively, with Zelenskyy.

Reporters and pundits walked away confused and disoriented. This isn’t how it’s supposed to happen, they lamented—disappointed, it seems, at having to act as journalists rather than stenographers.

Much of the hyperbolic outrage directed at Trump stems not so much from what he said to Zelenskyy—since his disdain for Ukraine and its president has been obvious—but from how and where he said it: in the Oval Office, in front of TV cameras.

That’s what America’s genteel chattering class finds so shocking—Trump’s berating and bullying were done openly, while more “diplomatic” presidents do their berating and bullying behind closed doors.

The glaring irony is that American networks and their personalities rely on “live” broadcasting to attract audiences tempted by the urgency of the moment and the possibility that, at any time, real, unscripted drama and conflict might erupt.

Newsworthy drama and conflict did erupt in the Oval Office on Friday, but instead of embracing it, those same networks and personalities recoiled, labeling it unseemly and unbecoming of the presidency and the United States itself.

Here’s a bit of news for the yapping ostriches:

Aside from lying with pathological ease and ordering others to kill without a hint of regret or remorse, being rude, crude, and a brute is a job prerequisite for any U.S. president—Democrat or Republican.

Trump is not the exception. He is the rule.

The administration of the polished, Harvard-trained President John F. Kennedy enlisted the Mafia to try to assassinate Cuba’s young and charismatic leader, Fidel Castro, and tacitly approved a coup in early November 1963 that overthrew South Vietnam’s government and led to the assassination of President Ngo Dinh Diem.

Kennedy’s successor, Lyndon Johnson, was a boorish six-foot-four man who physically assaulted smaller public servants who angered him.

In 1965, a furious Johnson summoned Canada’s diminutive prime minister, Lester Pearson, to Camp David for a stern reprimand after the Nobel Peace Prize winner criticized the U.S. bombing of North Vietnam.

Reportedly, Johnson grabbed Pearson by the shirt collar, twisted it, and lifted the prime minister by the neck, shouting, “You pissed on my rug.”

That same year, an enraged Johnson shoved then-Chairman of the Federal Reserve William Martin against a wall for raising interest rates against the president’s wishes.

“Boys are dying in Vietnam, and Bill Martin doesn’t care,” Johnson thundered.

The paragon of presidential integrity, Richard Nixon, ordered the CIA to block, thwart, undermine, and destabilize Chile’s democratically elected Socialist president, Salvador Allende.

And Nixon’s obscene anti-Semitism makes Trump’s fiery remarks to Zelenskyy seem rather mild in comparison. He was recorded complaining that Washington “is full of Jews” and that “most Jews are disloyal.”

Whether the wailing pundits and TV personalities are prepared to admit it or not, Trump was right. The sensational Oval Office fireworks made for great television.

This time, we were privy to the astonishing, history-making words and deeds of another “gangster” president in real-time, as they happened.

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.