On David Butow’s “Trump Country, Michigan”

I saw this photo on Instagram yesterday. It was taken by David Butow who is covering the last days of the presidential campaign. As you probably know, Instagram is pretty freeform when it comes to commenting on one’s photo, even if the creator is a photojournalist and the words sound like a caption.

Accompanying this bucolic scene, Butow wrote:

Trump country. Michigan. Just an hour’s drive but a world apart from Detroit where a recent poll showed him with 0% support.  

So he’s thinking urban/rural divide and political demographics. After mentioning Detroit, though, it doesn’t surprise me that David omits where in Michigan this photo was taken. The picture is reminiscent of that Trump billboard in a frozen backyard in Iowa that went viral during the primaries. Here, also, is the ominous sense of who-knows-how-many-other Trump enthusiasts in rural communities that remain silent and invisible, but for a balloon here or a bumper sticker there. I have my doubts about the “majority” in that phrase “silent majority,” but the silent part is eerie, and a bit of a mind game.

(photo: David Butow via Instagram/Redux Pictures.)