The Coronavirus Show — directed by, produced by and featuring President Trump — has certain rules.
The president, who is every episode’s star, always gets the best lines — delivering the happy talk quotes and zingers that are often riddled with half-truths and misstatements, but that allow him to present to the audience the world as he wishes it were, not as it is, in the middle of a deadly global pandemic.
He reserves the right to surprise viewers — as he did with a serious turn on Monday afternoon — offering an appearance totally out of character with the show’s previous installments.
And the president appears when he wants, often at the beginning of
coronavirus task force news conferences, and sometimes departs early, too — not dissimilar to his time as the actual reality TV host of NBC’s “The Apprentice,” when he would dole out the challenge and then recede off-screen to the let the teams battle for his approval.
This is generally when the real show begins. But this show, too, has its own set of rules.
Administration officials playing supporting characters must often shape-shift to inhabit two main roles: the role of Trump cheerleader, where they make sure to lavish praise on the president almost to the point of obsequiousness, and the role of competent government bureaucrats doing their very best to be honest and transparent with the public.
It is not an easy casting assignment.