15 AUGUST

Unhinged

A former White House aide has sensationally launched a new book about her time working for President Donald Trump, accusing him of being racist, a misogynist and in mental decline. Omarosa Manigault-Newman also released numerous recordings of what she says are private conversations with the president and senior White House staff.

Unhinged: An Insider’s Account of the Trump White House details the former Apprentice contestant's nearly 12 months in the West Wing, where she was hired at the senior-most level and had solid access to the Oval Office. Her outrageous book publicity tour and reality TV background have led many to describe her methods as "pure Trump".

President Trump responded to the various allegations by calling Manigault-Newman a “lowlife” who was “vicious, but not smart”. Overnight he also referred to her as a "dog". The Trump presidential campaign filed arbitration action against her this week, alleging a breach of a confidentiality agreement.

NEWS WRAP

The call's coming from inside the House

• One of the recordings Omarosa Manigault-Newman released is a conversation she claims she had with President Trump after she was fired from the White House. It came two days after the release of another recording alleged to be of her firing by White House chief of staff John Kelly in the Situation Room – a 'Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility' where staff are not permitted to bring in mobile phones or recording devices. Associate Professor in American Politics Brendon O'Connor told SBS News the tapes provide an insight into the character of the people involved and the nature of the White House. READ MORE HERE.
   

• None of President Trump's senior White House officials are black. A CNN review of 48 senior White House officials found the president is being advised by overwhelmingly white staff, with only a handful that are of Latino, Asian or Arab descent. The lack of diversity in the West Wing came into focus during Manigult-Newman's re-emergence into the public arena to promote her new book. READ MORE HERE.
   

• Christine Hallquist has become the first transgender person nominated for US governor by a major party. Hallquist outlasted a field of four Democratic hopefuls in Vermont on Tuesday to take out the primary. She ran on a promise to build up renewable energy and boost the state's rural economy by expanding broadband access. A former energy company executive, Hallquist transitioned publicly during her time as leader of one of the state's largest utilities, becoming the first CEO to do so while in the job. She'll take on Republican Governor Phil Scott in the November midterms. READ MORE HERE.
   

• US president Bill Clinton stood alongside his counterpart Jiang Zemin at a press conference 21-years-ago and brazenly told his guest that when it came to political reform and respect for human rights, China was “on the wrong side of history". Optimism for political reform is not extinguished but has since subsided, and democracy in Asia is in for the fight of its life, according to senior fellow John Lee in The Weekend Australian. READ MORE HERE. 
   
• US tech companies Facebook, YouTube and Apple expelled Alex Jones, a conspiracy theorist, and his site InfoWars from their platforms over the past week. But over on Twitter, Jones still happily tweets away to his more than 800,000 followers. Writing for Fairfax this week, honorary associate Nicole Hemmer took a look at divisions in social media over what to do with Jones and the widening debate over how media organisations deal with growing radicalism, especially white nationalism. READ MORE HERE.
   
• The outcome of the recent AUSMIN meeting was a welcome signal of the US- Australia alliance’s increasing focus on the Indo-Pacific region. But research associate Brendan Thomas-Noone argues it was a missed opportunity to drive an ambitious agenda for how the alliance can invest in joint defence technology projects and use private sector innovation to address shared national security challenges. He wrote for The Strategist last week – alongside Center for a New American Security's Daniel Kliman – about why defence innovation is so critical. READ MORE HERE.

I have watched with dismay and increasing horror as my nephew, an educated man who is well aware of his heritage, has become the architect of immigration policies that repudiate the very foundation of our family’s life in this country.

Dr David S. Glosser (uncle of White House senior advisor Stephen Miller)
Politico Magazine
August 13 2018

ANALYSIS

Arts medals go missing under Trump

Lucas Thompson
Lecturer

It might seem frivolous to point out, given the far more dramatic developments during the current administration, but President Trump is still yet to award any National Medals of Arts or National Humanities Medals. As the New York Times recently reported, Trump has not yet awarded either the 2016 or the 2017 round of arts medals. (He also hasn’t given out National Science or Technology Medals.) It’s now the longest ever gap in awarding such medals, with the most recent round being the 2015 awards under President Obama. And while the White House claims that the awards will likely be given out “later this year”, there are some concerns that the absence is a deliberate policy decision, rather than a mere administrative delay.

So why does it matter? Well, for one thing, it raises questions around the ongoing politicisation of culture in the Trump era. Countless forms of US pop-culture – and culture more broadly – have responded to the Trump administration, using art to address broader political conditions. It’s now become commonplace to ask how new TV shows, theatre productions, music albums, and of course films speak to the Trump era, and we’ve seen an enormous rise in politicised forms of culture. Under such conditions, any potential recipients of such awards risk being politically over-interpreted.

Trump's delay in giving out these awards also exposes, as the New York Times rather delicately points out, “the president’s often awkward relationship with the arts”. Trump famously reads little, let alone fiction or poetry. He has eliminated the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities, and chose not to attend the 2017 Kennedy Center Honors, which celebrate lifetime contributions to the arts. In terms of visual art, Trump’s love of self-portraits has been widely discussed, though he did reveal something of his conventional – and notably European – aesthetic preferences earlier this year by requesting a Van Gogh from the Guggenheim to hang in the White House. (The chief curator, Nancy Spector, pointedly offered an 18-carat golden toilet in response.)

Bizarrely, Trump seems to view his business dealings as an alternative to other forms of creative expression. “Deals are my art form,” Trump wrote in 1987’s The Art of the Deal. “Other people paint beautifully on canvas or write wonderful poetry. I like making deals. Preferably big deals. That’s how I get my kicks.” Since his own concerns are with economics rather than art, it’s perhaps no surprise that he doesn’t seem particularly concerned with publicly honouring “beautiful” painters or “wonderful” poets.

So what laurels has Trump conferred? Well, he’s given out numerous honours for military and law enforcement, including the Medal of Valor to six civilians who assisted victims of the 2015 shooting in San Bernardino. Among others, he’s also given out several Medals of Honor, bestowing the US military’s highest honour on various servicemen. Such awards are of course far less contentious, and largely escape partisan politics, unlike those relating to the arts.

The National Humanities Medals are given in recognition of individuals or organisations who have “deepened the nation’s understanding of the humanities and broadened our citizens’ engagement with history, literature, languages, philosophy, and other humanities subjects”. What kind of cultural figure would Trump choose to honour in this way? And who might plausibly accept such an award? One important hint lies in the response of the novelist Dave Eggers, who recently said that the only circumstances under which he would consider accepting such an award was if “there was absolutely no connection to the White House and we just acknowledge the work of the NEA [National Endowment for the Arts] and the NEH [National Endowment for the Humanities]”, which seems an unlikely scenario.

DIARY

The week ahead

• Wednesday, 15 August: Vice President Mike Pence keynotes 'Tax Cuts to Put America First' event in Iowa.
   

• Thursday, 16 August: President Trump is scheduled to host a cabinet meeting.
   

• Tuesday, 21 August: Primaries in Alaska and Wyoming.
   

• 20-23 August: Both houses of Australian Parliament sitting in Canberra.

EVENT

The unravelling of the Iran Deal: Where to now?

VIDEO

Kellyanne Conway attempts to name the White House's top ranking African-American

THE WEEK IN TWEETS

#Omarosa

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University of Sydney NSW 2006

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