It was just the authoritarian image Donald Trump hoped to project at the US Open: the president himself, looming from Arthur Ashe Stadium’s giant screens like Chairman Mao at Tiananmen Gate, as he stood at attention for the national anthem. But there was no denying that, while the picture was there, the sound clashed. The burst of cheers that went up for his stiff salute on Sunday was quickly drowned out by a chorus of boos made louder from the Ashe roof being closed for rain – perhaps fitting given that many fans had been left to stand in the wet and endure the long security lines that resulted from his attendance. In that awkward five-second moment, as the Stars and Stripes was unfurled on center court, the president smirked at the negative reaction. It surely rang so familiar.
Trump’s presence at the US Open men’s final wasn’t just intended as a soft power grab, the kind of routine stunt Vladimir Putin, Kim Jong-un and the other despots he admires pull all the time at sports events – except with recruitment ads for Ice playing across the US. No, Trump’s presence was intended as a distraction. Not a distraction for him; lord knows, he couldn’t care less about the actual match, a fact that was reinforced when Trump left his luxury box seat to step inside and kibitz with a phalanx of suck-ups. No, Trump’s visit was dropped like a flash bang to divert attention from klaxoning recession indicators, rumbling speculation about his health and, naturally, those files about that guy whose name must not be mentioned.
