8 8.23.
Above and opening page: Screen grabs from HBOScreenland
Photo illustration by Chris Burnettdefl ect blame. ‘‘I don’t take responsibil-
ity at all,’’ he said in March, regarding
problems with U.S. testing. Since then he
had pointed fi ngers at state governors,
Democrats in Congress and the Chinese
Communist Party.
Swan’s young, guileless face and fl at-
teringly deferential manner masked an
inquisitor prepared to hold Trump to
account. Early on, he brought up the
‘‘older people,’’ many of them at Trump’s
rallies, who have ‘‘a false sense of securi-
ty’’ because of Trump’s statements that
the virus was under control and basic
precautions were therefore unneces-
sary. His voice took on a pleading tone
as he implored the president to consider
the risks that the virus posed not to the
country as a whole, but to Trump’s sup-
porters in particular.
Trump, put by Swan in the unusual posi-
tion of having to defend himself, turned
into a Roman candle of incandescent,
colorful excuses. ‘‘What’s your defi nition
of control?’’ he asked Swan. Then he hun-
kered down. ‘‘I think it’s under control.’’
‘‘How?’’ Swan asked. ‘‘A thousand
Americans are dying a day!’’
‘‘They are dying,’’ Trump replied.
‘‘That’s true.’’
Th ey, not we — note the psychological
distancing at work here. And yet Trump did
not dispute the deaths themselves, their
cause or the number. Swan had confronted
him with one of the rare unwelcome facts
that he did not have the audacity to deny.‘‘And you have —’’ Trump began. Then a
second thought seemed to elbow its way
in, and Trump interrupted himself. ‘‘It is
what it is,’’ he said.
These fi ve words — it is what it is — are
most often spoken privately, to close out
a discussion on a note of stoic commis-
eration. They are odd ones to apply to a
pandemic, especially one that is far from
over. They are not a declaration of victo-
ry. They do not imply that everything is
under control. Nor are these words often
applied to a crisis that is still unfolding
and could be made better or worse by
crucial, life-or-death decisions that
remain in your control. The formula is
plain-spoken but also evasive; its tauto-
logical aspect works to push the detailsFor these fi ve
words to work
their magic,
the speaker must
shut up.
Trump did not.