Religious Persecution Survivors on the Oval Stage

A photo-op can either go well or very badly. When it goes badly, a keen eye can expose it to its hollow core. And that’s what we did in our latest tweet thread, where we examined what role President Trump’s meeting with survivors of religious persecution had in his political agenda. 

Last week, 27 survivors of religious persecution met with President Donald Trump to share their stories. The survivors came from 17 different countries, including China, Myanmar, Iran, Iraq and North Korea. 

All of this is ironic, considering what happened after. Vox wrote, “Immediately afterward, the president attended a rally and whipped up xenophobic anger at Ilhan Omar perhaps the most prominent refugee and religious minority in American politics. And the next day, Politico reported that security officials in the Trump administration are considering cutting refugee admissions ‘to nearly zero’ next year.”

1/ A photographic look at Trump’s meeting with survivors of #religiouspersecution. A thread about suffering and political opportunism. (Photo of Esther Bitrus, one of the woman kidnapped by #BokoHaram in Nigeria in 2014, distracted by the swarm of media.) pic.twitter.com/sUsoWHDJZk

— Reading The Pictures (@ReadingThePix) July 22, 2019

It can’t be said that the event was Trump’s form of lip service, since he barely expressed words of sympathy. According to media reports, which described the meeting as “awkward,” he seemed unaware of what was happening in the attendee’s home countries. 

2/ People were taken aback by Trump’s ignorance of his guests at the @WhiteHouse #religiouspersecution photo op on Wednesday. There was particular outrage over how he dealt with #NadiaMurad, the Yazidi woman from Northern Iraq. pic.twitter.com/RurcNBRC5r

— Reading The Pictures (@ReadingThePix) July 22, 2019

3/ Others were equally upset over Trump’s ignorance about the Rohingya genocide. pic.twitter.com/IzDFHm8bfy

— Reading The Pictures (@ReadingThePix) July 22, 2019

Circled around him and unnecessarily crammed into the Oval Office, Trump’s guests looked more like props. On Trump’s stage, he was the star, and everyone else was pushed into the background.

4/ But what the media and public hardly see anymore is the flippancy of the format: Tump front and center, and the rest, wedged around as backers and props, on stage to soundbite deep trauma and violation. What Uighur sympathizers visually had to work with: pic.twitter.com/j5Ni3zDFT0

— Reading The Pictures (@ReadingThePix) July 22, 2019

5/ This screenshot from an Asian YouTube show provides inadvertent commentary. Not knowing any better, we’d swear the scene with this commentator (remember Melania on her b-day?) was a meme. pic.twitter.com/yvCjbHkTeL

— Reading The Pictures (@ReadingThePix) July 22, 2019

Given the sensitive nature of what those survivors have gone through, a quiet, intimate and comfortable space would have been more fitting. The blocking was clearly deliberately planned for the camera, and it was challenging for certain people to make eye contact and sustain a conversation with the president without having to lean or hover over him. 

6/ For more awkwardness, consider Nyima Lhamo, a Tibetan Buddhist. She explains she’s from the homeland of the Dalai Lama, her people oppressed by the Chinese. The lean could be mistaken for a bow. pic.twitter.com/3DZgjM9t0i

— Reading The Pictures (@ReadingThePix) July 22, 2019

Context is everything. One has to ask, “Why meet with survivors of religious persecution? And why survivors from those specific countries?” As indicated, the meeting was aimed and structured as a message to his evangelical base.

Trump has always been strategic. This time, he used survivors as pawns. 

9/ The group was seeded w Christians, several of them missionaries, and it had its effect. pic.twitter.com/BAVFrERikJ

— Reading The Pictures (@ReadingThePix) July 22, 2019

10/ Trump’s trade war enemy, the Chinese, also came in for special targeting, including four survivors of Chinese oppression. pic.twitter.com/5kDwtkj8GM

— Reading The Pictures (@ReadingThePix) July 22, 2019

12/ And then, there was the Holocaust survivor and German Jew, Irene Weiss, who actually lives in DC. Ms. Weiss was fixed at Trump’s side, telegraphing to evangelicals (as POTUS does endlessly, especially stalking @Ilhan ) that Israel and Jerusalem are the highest priority. pic.twitter.com/NlfIBkwT8b

— Reading The Pictures (@ReadingThePix) July 22, 2019

The White House’s choice of imagery was interesting, since it sent a completely different message from that of the photographs taken by the press. 

7/ Nyima Lhamo also made the @WhiteHouse’s “Photos of the Week” press release. On top of Lhamo’s worshipful gesture, Trump basks in the admiration of those who deserve the real admiration and praise. (This is right before Trump asks her to give the Dalai Lama his regards.) pic.twitter.com/Ya4mA64AsW

— Reading The Pictures (@ReadingThePix) July 22, 2019

13 / Overall, one has to mourn the media scrum confessional, a fact Trump doesn’t even bother hiding. In a normal world, an encounter like this deserves privacy and true face to face. But Trump, as you see from these @WhiteHouse Flickr shots, lives for the mics and the cameras. pic.twitter.com/7M81lYlbIs

— Reading The Pictures (@ReadingThePix) July 22, 2019

Once again, we see that perspective is everything. With the weaponization of photography in politics, photographer Elliott Erwitt couldn’t have been more right when he said, “It has little to do with the things you see and everything to do with the way you see them.”

15/ The exploitation was no lost on the @WhiteHouse photo press. This devastating portrait of the disconnect was distributed by Getty. As the figures in the background feel for one of the survivors, what could be more sad? (End Thread.)
 pic.twitter.com/9KrtfSQ7Lo

— Reading The Pictures (@ReadingThePix) July 22, 2019

Photo: Shealah Craighead/Official White House Photo Caption: President Donald J. Trump meets with survivors of religious persecution from 17 countries Wednesday, July 17, 2019, in the Oval Office of the White House.