A great photographer I once worked with once told me that when you make a photograph, you’re making a record of someone else’s truth, not yours. But over the years, I’ve found that sometimes it’s the other way around. Last week’s coverage of the ignominious downfall of Trump’s “staff secretary,” Rob Porter, was just such a time.
Porter was accused by two ex-wives and an ex-girlfriend of hitting and kicking and choking one, and grabbing and shoving the other one, and calling all of them “stupid bitch” and “fucking ridiculous” and screaming a lot. For days, they ran photos of this guy. There was the photo of Porter standing behind Trump as Chief of Staff Reince Priebus handed him an executive order to sign on one of the early days in the Oval Office, when Trump was signing the things daily, trying his best to look like he was keeping his campaign promises by banning Muslims, cutting regulations, reorganizing the federal government, expediting environmental reviews. There was Porter and his girlfriend, Hope Hicks, the White House “communications director,” walking across the tarmac of Andrews Air Force Base, headed for the stairs to Air Force One. Harvard man Porter is in his preppy dark blue suit and rep tie and black oxfords, carrying a briefcase, and Hicks is in a summery dress, its hem blowing in the breeze, wearing very high heels and carrying an oversize bag in one hand and a cell phone in the other. Just two go-getters jetting off to Hamburg for the G-20 summit, or Taormina, Sicily for the G-7 summit, or someplace important, anyway, because that’s what you do when you work in the Trump White House. You show up, and you do important shit, and (in Hicks’ and Porter’s case) you look good.
It’s very, very important in the Trump White House to look good. Your hair is perfectly coiffed, or slicked down and parted. The clothes you wear are tasteful and expensive. You’re slim, and toned, and your stride is purposeful, and you don’t look over at the gaggle of photographers shooting you, because they are there to record you amidst the trappings of power. They photograph you getting on Air Force One, because Air Force One is a trapping of power. They photograph you in the Oval Office, because it’s another trapping of power. The portico behind the West Wing leading to the Rose Garden is another trapping of power. Rob Porter and Hope Hicks have been photographed over and over again with these trappings of power, because it’s all that matters in the Trump White House. It’s what they actually do. They inhabit the trappings of power, and they look good doing it, because that’s their goddamned job. All those photos of Rob Porter and Hope Hicks really are them, because they record all there ever was of them.
Who the hell are these people, anyway? What the hell is a “staff secretary?” Oh, we’ve been told over and over again how important he was in the White House. He was Chief of Staff Kelly’s “right hand man.” Before that, he was “right hand man” for Chief of Staff Reince Priebus. His office is right outside the door to the Oval Office. All of this means he was Important. Powerful. Big.
But what the hell did he do? What did the men he worked for do? Priebus was supposed to make the trains run on time, but the White House was pure chaos while he was in charge in the West Wing. They fired him and brought in former Marine General Kelly, who (we were assured) would impose discipline on the White House, presumably so Trump could be a better president. What have we had? Even more chaos. More midnight tweets. More staff firings and people quitting the White House. According to the Washington Post, no less than 37 people have either quit, been pushed out, or fired while Trump has been president. The New York Times reports that the White House has had a turnover of 34 percent over the first year of Trump’s presidency, the highest ever, more than twice that of any other president. Is that what Rob Porter, the “right hand man” has been doing in the White House? Keeping track of everybody as they fled out the door? Is that what a “staff secretary” does? Apparently.
What the hell has Hope Hicks been doing? She’s supposed to be the White House “communications director.” Have you ever heard her communicate anything? Presumably, she’s in charge of the White House press operation. Well, let’s have a look at how well she’s done with that. Press Secretary Sean Spicer? Out. Communications something-or-another Anthony Scaramucci? Out. Deputy Press Secretary Michele Short? Out. Public Liaison Director George Sifakis? Out. Director of communications for the office of Public Liaison Omarosa Manigault? Out. Deputy Assistant Sebastian Gorka? Out. Communications Director Michael Dubke? Out.
Meanwhile, what does the White House communicate? Well, they’ve got those press “briefings” by Sarah Huckabee Sanders, who stands there like a schoolmarm and answers simple questions by saying she doesn’t know, because she hasn’t talked to the president about that subject. And we’ve got Trump’s tweets, thousands of them, at all hours of the day and night. During 2017, Trump tweeted 2,417 times, according to the Boston Globe. Good job, Hope. Now go touch up your make-up and get ready to walk across the White House lawn to the Marine One helicopter. In your $800 thigh-high boots. Or your $1,000 Jimmy Choos.
You want to know what the White House is to these people? It’s not a job, it’s a background. It’s not power, it’s pantomime, because to have power, you’ve got to exercise it. If you’re a “staff secretary” like Porter, with access to all of the top secret material he’s supposed to have seen without a security clearance, you’ve got to actually do something with it, don’t you? I mean, the other thing we learned last week is that Trump skips most of his top-secret security briefings, and the ones he does get are all given orally now, the briefers having dispensed with the charts and graphs and photos they were using previously.
So if Trump has apparently never laid eyes on all the top secret stuff Porter was processing, what the hell was he doing? Moving it from his in-box to his out-box? Checking off some line that says “received,” and then forwarding it on . . . where? If you’re the president’s staff secretary, and you don’t forward this super-secret stuff to the president because he doesn’t read it, then what the fuck do you do?
And then the other day we learned that Porter was in for a big promotion. He was said to have become “more interested in policy,” so he was going to be elevated to deputy chief of staff, or something that sounds big and important. But working policy? In the Trump White House? For a man who doesn’t know the difference between Medicare and Medicaid? Who doesn’t know a budget deficit from the national debt? Who gets his “policy” ideas from “Fox and Friends?” Come on.
All we’ve really known about any of these people are photographs and news footage. They didn’t really do anything in the White House, so we have to rely on photographs, and what those pictures tell us is that they are hollow, well dressed people amidst the trappings of power. They stand around the Oval Office behind the president and watch him. That’s what happens in the Trump White House. He likes to be watched, so people like Rob Porter stand there and watch him. He likes to be photographed, so he has photographers come in and take pictures. It’s one of his trappings of power.
But the best photo we have of Rob Porter wasn’t taken in the White House, and it’s not of him. It’s the photo of Porter’s first wife, Colbie Holderness, with her black eye. It’s a photo of the one thing we know that Rob Porter actually did. He beat his wife. It’s a photo of misogyny and violence. It’s the best photo we have of the Trump White House.
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