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This New York Times review of Trump's new portrait will make you cringe [1]
['Daily Kos Staff']
Date: 2025-06-04
The New York Times published a lengthy article on Wednesday examining President Donald Trump’s newly released official portrait. It was yet another strangely normalizing report from the Times even as multiple facets of traditional American life are under threat from Trump and his team.
The piece was published in the Times’ “Arts” section and written by “critic at large” Jason Farago. The critic contrasts Trump’s new portrait with his original image and determines that the “subject’s mood has actually brightened.”
While most observers might say that Trump’s image in the new photo is still odd and menacing—especially when compared to images of former Presidents Biden, Obama, and Bush—Farago argues that there is an element of “humor” in the latest portrait.
Don’t these portraits make you feel warm and fuzzy?
“The lighting is more head-on. Mr. Trump’s shoulders are relaxed, his affect has softened. His neutral expression is moderated by a slight warmth in the eyes — a classic pose that a younger generation, following the supermodel Tyra Banks, knows to call ‘smizing,’” Farago writes.
The timing of the Times’ soft-focus examination of Trump’s portrait is particularly jarring.
The Senate is currently considering Trump-backed legislation, known as the “One Big, Beautiful Bill Act,” that would strip health insurance from millions of Americans and undermine many of the protections that are in the Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare.
The art critique was also published on the same day that new Trump tariffs went into action, raising the costs of steel and aluminum products. These tariffs are expected to lead to increased costs for groceries and construction materials and are certain to weigh on already-stressed businesses and consumers.
Trump is also engaged in multiple grifts that use the publicly funded presidency to enrich himself and his family, and he also hired a FEMA director who apparently doesn’t even know what hurricane season is.
If Trump is actually “smizing,” as the Times claims, what exactly is he smizing about?
This type of coverage is habitual for the Times, which has for decades advertised itself as “All the News That’s Fit to Print.”
In May the paper was uncritically regurgitating Trump’s claim that he was backing away from supporting increased taxes for the wealthy—something he has never supported in legislation. Sure enough, the bill currently under Senate consideration extends tax cuts for the super-rich and undermines the social safety net for the middle and working classes.
In February, the Times quoted an individual they initially described as an average Black person who praised Trump’s first few weeks in office—but the person turned out to be a Republican political operative.
The art critique and other Times coverage reflect an ongoing dilemma within the mainstream media. Despite the destruction and scandals that are a hallmark of Trump’s time in the White House (both in his first term and now), the press has continued to operate like everything is perfectly normal.
Trump can’t even pose for a presidential portrait normally. But at least this image didn’t inspire a tantrum, unlike the Trump portrait that graced the Colorado Capitol.
Related | Trump is mad that his ugly portrait looks just like him
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[1] Url:
https://dailykos.com/stories/2025/6/4/2326005/-New-York-Times-thinks-Trump-s-new-portrait-shows-his-humor-and-warmth?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=top_news_slot_7&pm_medium=web
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