"When Liz Truss tweeted a photo of herself standing next to Donald Trump, she captioned it right about everything. All that effort, all that security clearance and long-haul travel and whatnot, to reach the pinnacle of proximity to your spiritual leader, and that's the best she could come up with? It was bafflingly lame. And yet the least confusing thing about this scene were the words."
"Truss clearly knows where she is, because she's grinning with a kind of victorious serenity, as if she's finally achieved the plaudit she knew all along was hers. At the same time not wishing to be unsisterly she doesn't appear to have brushed her hair, so it doesn't feel like this photo opportunity was in anyone's diary. It looks like a selfie you'd catch when you run into your favourite contestant from The Traitors on your way through an airport."
"Trump, meanwhile, looks absolutely mystified. He seems to somehow know he's meant to smile, but is forcing it so hard it's rippling down his neck without ever reaching his eyes. His thumb is at half-mast, more like a twitch, a muscle memory, than a signal of enthusiasm. It's anyone's guess whether he knows who she is, or why they're together. Nothing whatsoever about this picture says leaders on the world stage, which is fine, because Truss isn't one."
Liz Truss posted a photo with Donald Trump after extensive effort, security clearance, and long-haul travel. The caption failed to match the magnitude of that effort. Truss grins with a victorious serenity and appears unbothered by grooming, giving the image an impromptu, fan-like quality. The shot resembles an airport selfie rather than a planned diplomatic encounter. Trump looks mystified, forcing a smile that does not reach his eyes while his thumb twitches. The image conveys no world-leader gravitas, raises questions about how Truss obtained access, and positions her as out of place in senior political company.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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