–Analysis–
PARIS — “This is going to be great television…”
That was Donald Trump’s quip at the end of his infamous Feb. 28 meeting with Volodymyr Zelensky, which he’d turned into a session of humiliation for the Ukrainian president. Indeed, the Oval Office, in the West Wing of the White House, has become a reality TV studio since Trump’s return, where the “alternative truth” so dear to the American president prevails over facts.
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The latest to pay the price is Cyril Ramaphosa, the President of South Africa, who came to try to mend damaged relations with the Trump administration. He walked straight into an ambush, as the American press put it, staged by Trump in his theater of televised cruelty.
The president even showed his guest a film alleging a so-called “genocide” of white farmers in South Africa. The New York Times analyzed the film and confirmed that it was riddled with lies. While some white farmers have indeed been murdered, the country’s very high crime rate affects all population groups, and it is absurd to speak of genocide or even reverse apartheid.
A real showman
He once had his own reality show, The Apprentice, with his famous “you’re fired” line to eliminate a contestant. An experience he puts to good use in his power and communication.
He has at his disposal the most famous studio in the world, the Oval Office, which has appeared in so many series and films that one feels a sense of familiarity upon entering it for the first time, as I did last February during the visit of French President Emmanuel Macron.
Experience shows that Trump is strong with the weak.
Almost every day, Trump opens the Oval Office to hand-picked journalists — the American news agency Associated Press was excluded for refusing to rename the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America. There, he signs his decrees, the famous Executive Orders, and receives foreign visitors. He controls who gets to ask questions, he is both the director and the lead actor in a show staged for his own glorification.
Experience shows that Trump is strong with the weak, or those he perceives as such, and weak with the strong. He told Zelensky that he “didn’t hold the cards” and allowed himself to humiliate him. As for the South African visitor, he had already lost all American aid under the influence of former South Africans like Elon Musk or the other powerful tech mogul, Peter Thiel.
The rule of diplomacy
On the other hand, he let France’s Macron contradict him on European aid to Ukraine, because the French president has learned to deal with him since his first term. And Trump was still moved by the memory of the inauguration of Notre Dame!
The main victim is the truth. Cyril Ramaphosa was unable to correct the record on the admittedly difficult situation in his country, which bears little resemblance to the caricature presented by Trump. And Macron was met with the response, regarding Ukraine: “If it makes you happy to believe that”, in the tone of “you’re not fooling me.”
Once you’ve survived the reality TV of the Oval Office, the negotiation can begin: that’s the rule of diplomacy in the world’s leading power in 2025. And you need to know it before the lights go on.
