La presentadora de MS NOW, Katy Tur, sostiene que, entre las muchas presiones que enfrenta el presidente Donald Trump —incluidos los conflictos prolongados, el aumento de los precios del combustible, un mercado laboral débil y las bajas estadounidenses en el extranjero—, solo una cosa lo impulsa de forma constante a retroceder: la apariencia de debilidad.

"He can take being called a liar. He can take being mocked. He can take being called out just so long as he is not made to look weak," dijo Tur, al recordar su cobertura de 2015 de un mitin de campaña en el que unos abucheadores, tras cronometrar sus interrupciones, obligaron a Trump a bajar temprano del escenario. "And that reporting that protesters forced him off the stage early made him look weak." Tur, que cubrió la campaña de Trump de 2016 para NBC y más tarde documentó sus experiencias en el libro Unbelievable, ha descrito repetidamente esta sensibilidad ante la debilidad percibida como un hilo conductor para entender el comportamiento público de Trump.

Tur dijo que las consecuencias de esa historia le enseñaron una lección definitoria sobre el carácter de Trump.

"In the days after that story, Donald Trump went after me with a vitriol I had not yet experienced, firing off rounds of nasty posts on Twitter, calling me a third-rate reporter and a liar in front of a crowd he had just whipped into a frenzy over his proposed Muslim ban in South Carolina, literally pointing me out in the back of the room, urging his supporters to turn around and shout me down," dijo Tur. "It was a scary moment. He also boycotted NBC until I apologized, which I never did."

"Why did he do all this? Because my reporting made him look weak," continuó. "And that was the lesson. And I think about that a lot. Ten years later, we are watching something much bigger play out with that lesson in mind."

Tur vinculó esa lección de hace una década con un reportaje reciente de The Washington Post que describía cómo Trump salió en secreto de su propio avión al esconderse en un contenedor de catering y pasar a otra aeronave, dejando atrás a periodistas y personal como aparentes señuelos durante una presunta amenaza iraní.

"That's a remarkable story, one that, now exposed, is likely to infuriate Donald Trump because ten years later, that allergy to appearing weak is still there," dijo.

El analista de MS NOW Mark Leibovich señaló que Trump mostró una reacción comparable durante su primer mandato, cuando surgieron informes de que había sido llevado a un búnker seguro en medio de manifestaciones masivas cerca de la Casa Blanca.

"There was that incident around the time, I think it was 2000, around a lot of George Floyd marches when there was a report that there were so many demonstrations around the White House that the president was ushered into some bunker at some point," dijo Leibovich. (Leibovich se expresó incorrectamente; las protestas por George Floyd ocurrieron en 2020.) "I mean, it's happened before, but Trump at that point just went ballistic. The fact that someone would leak a notion that that he was cowering in the basement of the White House or he was in some bunker was absolutely infuriating to him and that is what presumable is happening to him here." El episodio del búnker de junio de 2020, informado por primera vez por The New York Times, llevó a Trump a insistir públicamente en que solo estaba "inspecting" la instalación durante el día y no refugiándose por la noche, una explicación que por sí sola subrayó la misma dinámica descrita por Tur.

Tur añadió que, pese a los esfuerzos por proyectar fortaleza, las apariciones públicas del presidente cuentan otra historia.

"Yeah. I mean, he's an 80-year-old man and he can try to project the image of a strong guy and tough guy and have all the AI images of him muscled up or him looking stern over the resolute desk, etc. But the reality is we've got cameras on him all the time, and he does appear to be falling asleep," dijo Tur. "And you can't hide from a war in a beverage cart."

Source: YouTube