Donald Trump salt shakers

The Media Gets Salty About Trump’s Huge Shakers — Bigger Than Obama’s

Business Insider’s James Pasley reported Sunday that President Donald Trump often uses larger salt and pepper shakers than his White House guests. 

Pasley’s journalism was prompted by a tweet by CBC News’ White House correspondent Mark Knoller, who was covering Trump’s lunch with United Nations ambassadors from the world’s most powerful countries. Knoller shared a photo of the president’s shakers alongside those of Kelly Craft, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.

“DIdn’t know that the President gets bigger salt-and-pepper shakers than anyone else at the table,” Knoller remarked.

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Pasley went on to launch an investigation. After combing through the photo archives, he reported that “Trump more often than not gets much larger salt and pepper shakers than other foreign leaders or American politicians when dining at the White House.”


He was further able to determine that Trump seems to have innovated the use of the “towering” condiment dispensers. No photos could be found of previous Presidents Barack Obama, George W. Bush or Bill Clinton dining with such superior seasoning equipment, he said.

Pasley described Trump’s predecessors as engaging in “condiment equality” whereas Trump he speculated that the 45th president may be making a “power move.”

“The large shakers might just be because he enjoys salty foods like KFC chicken, Big Macs, and bacon and eggs,” Pasley speculated. “But it could also be another power move, alongside his fierce handshakes and bulky suits.”

Donald Trump, salt shakers and the liberal elite

Some commentators guffawed at the tongue-in-cheek report. But others found it obnoxious.

Twitter users made jokes about Pasley winning a Pulitzer Prize and suggested that he get a real job. Others suggested he reflects the same anti-Trump bias behind House Democrats’ impeachment inquiry.

The Federalist’s Mollie Hemingway sarcastically commented on the report: “IMPEACH!”

Rep. Devin Nunes of California, who has waged a populist campaign against impeachment as the ranking Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, added,
‘Please pass the salt and pepper…”

Pasley’s story is part of genre of Trump-related food coverage, which often makes explicit the condescending subtext of much of the news media’s coverage of the president.

Last April, Eater editor Greg Morabito wrote a similar article, also inspired by a tweet. Like Pasley, he tied Trump’s big shakers to his domineering style and love of all-American food.

“The salt shaker upgrade really shouldn’t come as much of a surprise because Trump has proven time and time again that he loves receiving special treatment during meals,” Morabito wrote. “He relishes those extra scoops of ice cream at dinner, American cheeseburgers on Japanese golf courses, red-button Coca-Colas in the Oval Office, and White House Quarter Pounders right before bed.”

A December 2016 Vanity Fair review of Trump Grill — the steakhouse in the lobby of Trump Tower in Manhattan — was headlined “Trump Grill could be the worst restaurant in America: And it reveals everything you need to know about our next president.”

Early in the article, reporter Tina Nguyen quoted author Fran Lebowitz as calling Trump “a poor person’s idea of a rich person.” Nguyen went on to savage Trump Grill for its alleged tackiness, saying, “The allure of Trump’s restaurant, like the candidate, is that it seems like a cheap version of rich.”

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Such jabs by the cultural elite may thrill Trump haters. But at a time when politics is increasingly defined by class, research and reporting has shown that they also help explain Trump’s election and his continuing popularity in rural America.

In their recent book on the 2016 election, “The Great Revolt,” Republican operative Brad Todd and conservative columnist Salena Zito found that Trump voters were largely united by a demand for respect from Washington.

“Our culture in Hollywood or in the media gives off the distinct air of disregard to people who live in the middle of the country, as if we have no value or do not contribute to the betterment of society,” a Wisconsin Trump supporter, Amy Giles-Maurer, told the authors. “It’s frustrating. It really wants to make you stand up and yell, ‘We count,’ except of course we don’t. At least not in their eyes.”

In the nearly three years since he took office, Trump’s approval rating has remained essentially unchanged, even amid endless investigations and media scandals. Recent New York Times-Siena College polling of registered voters in the swing states likely to decide the 2020 election found above-average opposition to impeachment and support for Trump’s reelection in 2020.

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