Donald Trump has always viewed the world through the prism of the television screen and if he now repeats, for example, that the population of Gaza must be fed, it is because he was impressed by the footage of emaciated children in the Palestinian enclave.
This change, at least in Trump's rhetoric, confirms that the former real estate developer, as in his first presidential term, shapes his vision of the world and his diplomacy in part depending on what he sees on television.
For a long time deaf to the repeated warnings of a humanitarian catastrophe in the Palestinian territory, the US president changed his mind suddenly during his recent stay in Scotland.
Asked on July 28 whether he agreed with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who had just declared that there was no famine in Gaza, the 79-year-old billionaire replied: "From what I see on TV, it's not exactly like that, because these children look very hungry".
He then added: "This is real famine" and said that "something like this cannot be simulated".
Since then, Trump, a former reality TV star, has repeatedly said that aid should be provided to the residents of the war-torn Palestinian territory, without, however, actually announcing new diplomatic actions.
"Trump has a reputation for not reading anything, not even the reports prepared by his advisers. "He has a reputation for always knowing everything better than anyone else," recalls Dan Kennedy, a journalism professor at Northeastern University in the United States.
According to statistics from Agence France-Presse, the Republican president has held 22 intelligence briefings since taking office in January, but since his first term as president, a number of media reports have revealed that he is not interested in reports written by diplomats or analyses by national security experts.
Before becoming US president for the first time, in 2015, Trump responded to a journalist who asked him how he keeps informed on military matters. "I watch TV," he said.
During his first term, the Republican leader was very annoyed by an article in the "New York Times" that said he spends several hours a day watching TV and follows primarily "Fox News," which is preferred by Republicans, as well as CNN, NBC and ABC.
For his second term as president, despite running a campaign during which he paid great attention to podcasters and influencers, it is clear that Trump remains an avid consumer of TV programs.
"This is a product of his generation," says Dan Kennedy. “He doesn't spend his time on “Tik Tok“.
On his social network “Truth Social“ Trump comments almost directly on the programs he watches.
In a long telephone interview yesterday with CNBC, for example, he said: “I was watching CNN the other day, it's bankrupt. It has no audience and I'm probably the only person who watches it“.
The US president, who does not hesitate to publish montages of his praise, realized by artificial intelligence, has always been very sensitive about the footage.
In October 2019, describing the US military operation in Syria that led to the death of the leader of the “Islamic State“ Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, he said: “It's an incredible thing to watch. I could follow it from the Situation Room. We saw the operation very clearly, as if we were watching a movie.
At the end of his infamous conversation with Zelensky in the Oval Office of the White House in February, which turned into a real fight, Trump declared: “It will be a great television moment“.
An enthusiastic viewer, the US president does not hesitate to use footage that intrigued him or aroused his emotions for the purposes of the balance of diplomatic power.
In May, for example, Trump set a real ambush for South African President Cyril Ramaphosa by forcing him to watch a montage of footage full of errors in the Oval Office of the White House. The screening was designed to support accusations of “genocide“ being carried out against white farmers in South Africa.
The US president then said he would probably not go to the G20 summit scheduled for November in South Africa and imposed 30 percent tariffs on that country. These are the highest tariffs imposed by the US on a sub-Saharan country. (BTA)
Translated from French: Gabriela Golemanska, BTA