10/12/2018

CELEBS/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “Imagine this: A president, concerned about the opioid crisis that is ravaging many communities, particularly white, Midwestern communities, invites a retired football player and a famous musician to talk about the crisis. And imagine that this is one of the few high-level meetings he has about the crisis, which has led to the deaths of tens of thousands of Americans. Well, that is kind of what just happened. Not with the opioids, but with the critical, potentially lethal, issues facing many African-Americans across the country. On Thursday [10-11-18], President Donald Trump had a working lunch with Kanye West and retired football player Jim Brown..The meeting also highlights how seriously Trump takes issues that his base doesn’t really care about. Rather than invite real policy experts, say on education or criminal justice, Trump brought before the cameras two famous black men who like him. The result was about what one would expect — a hard-to-parse, bizarre Oval Office moment with very little substance fueled by West’s desperate need for attention and Trump’s need for open adoration by famous people.”

Nia-Malika Henderson, “Why the Kanye West-Jim Brown lunch with Trump was a disaster,” CNN Politics, CNN.com October 12, 2018 4:14 am