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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region Forumsslate "Trump Has Ruined the Presidential Windbreaker"
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2017/10/trump_has_ruined_the_presidential_windbreaker.htmlFirst American democracy, now this.
By Katy Waldman
This Tuesday saw the latest of Trumps ritual visits to hurricane-wrecked cities, wherein the president offers encouragement along with a hefty dollop of self-congratulation and some improvisatory bloopers, such as telling stricken and homeless Puerto Ricans they should be very proud that they havent endured a real catastrophe like Hurricane Katrina. That afternoon, the president appeared at an airport hangar alongside Puerto Rican Gov. Ricardo Rossello, wearing a black windbreaker embroidered with the White House seal. (Rossello had on a blue button-down shirt.) Trump had donned the same windbreaker in Texas, Louisiana, and Florida, previous stops on his tour of handing out hoagies, tossing paper towels into the crowd, and praising his own speedy response to the devastation wrought by Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Maria. By the time Trump arrived at these various sites, ready to collect accolades and muse about geology, the wind had abated and the rain was dying down. The need for a windbreaker was highly debatable. Yet presidential windbreakers do not care about the weather. They are stable in a way this president is not.
Trumps black yard or two of fabric does, in its ability to repel water that is not currently falling from the sky, capture the futile theatrics of his administration. The president is not a man inclined to put himself in peril. If visiting a shattered city posed any threat, if it portended a trace of discomfort to his person, he would have bravely Skyped in from the golf course. And yet the windbreaker suggests a rough-and-tumble POTUS ready to get wet. The antithesis of Melanias six-inch heels, it signals a public servant subsumed by matters more urgent than self-presentation. That White House seal on the breast is a blaze of honor celebrating the humility of the U.S. government, its populist ability to be pressed into service. The collar flaps open, the sleeves are rolled up. Think the White Houses response to Hurricane Maria has been anemic? This costume transforms Trump into a man of action, a hero in a government-issued cape.
The presidential windbreaker is, it turns out, a thing. More specifically, it is a Thing, one of the subjects of a 1990s-era New York Times column called Thing that regaled readers with tales of things. In 1992, writer Andrew Rosenthal discovered that the United States military supplies the symbolic garment to each president for personal use aboard Air Force One; cut and styled to the taste of the commander in chief, it may or may not cost $150. (The exact price remains a state secret, Rosenthal reports.) The windbreaker, which always features the eagle ensign, used to be bluish-gray. Eisenhower sported the first iteration. Reagan innovated it by having his name stitched across the pocket. Clinton turned it navy blue. Trump (preferring to stamp his moniker on his hat) dispensed with the lettering. Princeton scholars during the term of George H.W. Bush, intrigued by the coats peripheral seduction of power, likened it to a rare baseball cardone collected by only the most elite.
Our photo archives are overflowing with images of various presidents in their custom windbreakers. John F. Kennedy wore his to visit a U.S. naval ship. Reagan strode around Camp David in his. Clinton zipped into his for cross-country flights, and Obama suited up in his windbreaker to comfort victims of Hurricane Sandy. (During that trip, 44 shared his famous hug with New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, also clad in a windbreaker.)
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slate "Trump Has Ruined the Presidential Windbreaker" (Original Post)
NRaleighLiberal
Oct 2017
OP
now you are veering dangerously into MY territory (not presidential crocs...
NRaleighLiberal
Oct 2017
#5
On the bright side, the Presidential Gloves require much less leather than they used to.
Buns_of_Fire
Oct 2017
#10
LisaM
(27,843 posts)1. Well, finally something good!
I never realized it before, but I actually kind of hate the Presidential windbreaker. It's so silly.
what about the presidential sweat pants? or Bermuda shorts?
LisaM
(27,843 posts)3. Or Crocs?
NRaleighLiberal
(60,026 posts)5. now you are veering dangerously into MY territory (not presidential crocs...
crocs of the heirloom tomato obsessed!)
LisaM
(27,843 posts)6. LOL. I liked Crocs at first...
then I made the mistake of going into a Crocs store at an outlet mall, and I am still clearing out my lungs! Seriously, I couldn't breathe. I had to leave, the plastic smell was so overwhelming (and I'm not a scentphobe for the most part).
Brother Buzz
(36,479 posts)4. I don't know, I thought the French cuffs added a bit of je ne sais quoi
Seriously, what's wrong with the guy?
Brother Buzz
(36,479 posts)9. The orange one has spent a lifetime trying to sort out....
Status, Class, and Tacky, and is still failing miserably.
bdamomma
(63,931 posts)8. this man truly
disgusts me.
Buns_of_Fire
(17,202 posts)10. On the bright side, the Presidential Gloves require much less leather than they used to.
Costs for the Presidential Jockstraps are classified. Just as well.
elehhhhna
(32,076 posts)11. He IS the presidential windbreaker