TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “In 2011, Donald J. Trump, host of ‘The Celebrity Apprentice,’ was the star of a Comedy Central roast, a familiar ritual for showbiz personae. The guest of honor sits stage center and gets insulted, then everyone laughs it off as all in good fun. The State of the Union address, under President Trump, has become something like a celebrity roast in reverse. In this ritual, the center of attention stands at the podium, he says things about working together and getting along, and after it’s done, everyone goes on their way, assuming he didn’t really mean it. So while the advance spin about the president’s speech Tuesday [2-5-19] was that it would emphasize ‘unity’ and ‘bipartisanship,’ the pre-address coverage on cable news was less credulous than before. Mr. Trump had, perhaps, finally been the wolf who cried boy too many times. (He had, in a lunch with news anchors that same day, already called Senator Chuck Schumer a ‘nasty son of a bitch.’)”
–James Poniewozik, “Trump, Political TV’s Protagonist, Now Has to Share the Spotlight,” The New York Times online, February 6, 2019