Washington.- Once again, the world can’t seem to get away from the spectacle that is Donald J. Trump.
As the former president prepared to voluntarily surrender to authorities on Tuesday, he once again became the center of the cable television universe.
Helicopters followed his plane and his caravan. Commentators speculated about his state of mind. Non-Trump issues—including President Biden—became an afterthought on the strips that appear at the bottom of television screens.
For years, that was an inevitable pattern. Trump won the White House and seized the presidential pulpit for his bravado and to consume every ounce of political oxygen.
For a brief period after losing re-election, Trump ceded the stage to his successor. Biden grabbed headlines by pulling out of Afghanistan, by fighting him in Congress over his spending agenda and trying to unify the world to defend Ukraine against Russian invasion.
Yet even occupying the Oval Office doesn’t match the height of Trump’s scandals.
As New York experienced the first criminal conviction for a former president, Biden met with his Council of Advisors on Science and Technology for a moralistic conversation in the State Ballroom. Although he was mentioned a few times in the media.
It is a political challenge for Biden, who is expected to announce his re-election in the coming months.
This Monday, he gave a speech in Minnesota about clean energy generation. While CNN kept its cameras focused on the jet bearing the “TRUMP” name, as it landed in Manhattan.
White House advisers say they are pleased with that contrast, especially now that the spotlight on Trump is hardly the kind any politician could want.
Although there is no doubt that it will be more difficult for anyone — including Biden — to send a consistent message amid the whirlwind of the Trump circus.
Publicly, Trump is basking in the spotlight as he tries to return to the job he lost in 2020. He plans to deliver a primetime speech from his Mar-a-Lago estate Tuesday night after returning to Florida from his stint. In New York.
