At the White House Press Briefing, Sarah Huckabee Sanders did her best to dodge both the questions and the tomatoes.
Photo by: Jessica Ma
In the past few weeks, many Americans have been awestruck by how seemingly messily and uncoordinatedly the Trump Administration has been conducting business. However, there seems to be a reason for the lack of structure that the White House possesses.
In a recent study conducted by social scientists at University of California, San Diego, it has been discovered that President Trump’s administration is nothing more than an improv camp for the wealthy.
The administration, under the guise of being a functioning government outfit, is actually just a platform for wealthy white Americans to refine their improvisation skills led by the POTUS himself, but includes other major actors such as Sebastian Gorka and Kellyanne Conway. Nonetheless, the camp is considered to be one of most competitive improv camps in North America, with tremendous artists like Sean Spicer having been removed for poor performances.
The actors have often been seen performing improv at press conferences and other public appearances. However, the White House briefing room remains to be the main stage for these actors to interact with their primary audience, highbrow media journalists.
The political preference of those who attend such shows can range from the tolerant liberals to the more tolerant conservatives. While the liberals criticise every act, scrutinise every performance, and chuck rotten fruit at the heads of the actors to express their distaste, the conservatives cannot hold back their praise. In fact, the monotony of the audiences’
reactions makes their responses seem extremely staged, and are much more enjoyable than the improv acts they observe.
A typical performance consists of three elements: a tweet from Trump, the actor’s initial statement, and witty improv. Trump’s tweet starts by setting up the stage for the actor to come out with a pre-prepared statement with which he will embarrass himself, and only proceeds to get worse as the performance continues and the actors improvise.
It has been noticed that actors will sometimes set a trap, not only for themselves, but for their colleagues too. The POTUS, the camp’s leader and remarkable improv artist, leads by example in the creation of the aforementioned traps. Thus, he has been regarded by esteemed (and predominantly caucasian) acting academies as a great leader.
Following these traps are delivered dialogues that actors are often not ready to be condemned for. Any sort of condemnation seems to take a toll on their egos. Consequently, these actors perform differently during the acts but manage to hold both their ground and their egos.
This camp might not seem like it functions very well, but it is still in place and its popularity is skyrocketing. The improv camp often refuses to take the plentiful criticism it faces, claiming it is “running healthily.” In fact, it often lobs criticisms at both the audience and the critics themselves.
Certain critics have been wrongly accused of attributing the actors’ authority to them flaunting their wealth and race, as America is clearly a diverse and inclusive country with no concept of white privilege. Despite the improv critics’ general distaste for the Trump administration’s supposed “privilege,” general audiences seem to enjoy how these actors seamlessly incorporate their whiteness into the performances.
By Sahil Nayyar, staff writer
