Tuesday, 6 December 2016

Behold the Trump Tower Elevator

   


In Canto III of Dante’s Inferno, there is the antechamber and then the Gate of Hell.  At Trump Tower, there is the lobby and then the four elevators.

I could basically stop writing right here.

If you are a masochist, here’s something that can fill the next eight hours of your life: the Trump lobby pool feed from the press area from November 18, 2016. (https://www.c-span.org/video/?418748-1/watch-pool-feed-trump-tower-lobby ). I guarantee you Andy Warhol is doing a half-gainer in his grave.

Presumably, anyone can enter the lobby. As for the elevators, hithertofore thought as nothing more than a method of conveyance, access takes on an entirely new meaning.

This photo of Steven Mnuchin, Trump’s pick for Treasury secretary, entering one of the elevators to ascend to a fate yet to be determined, is emblematic of what is becoming the iconic image of this period before the inauguration. Perhaps it is the franchise luxury of the Trump black and gold motif, or maybe it is the symmetry-induced claustrophobia of the photo’s composition, or it might be nothing more than the reflection of the photographer, but something about this photo seems like there should be a dialogue bubble over Mnuchin’s head saying, “Tell my family I love them.”

On the other hand, it totally makes me think of The Shaft, the 2001 horror film from director Dick Maas about a killer elevator. "Nine people out of ten make it out of an elevator alive," quips one character.

On the internet, an array of listicles (such an offensive degeneration of journalism, with the exception of year end “Best Of” summaries) can be found detailing the best TV/movie elevator moments. But lists do not establish creative or symbolic significance, even if one of these articles appears in Vanity Fair, in its perpetual search to make the mundane sublime. VF waxes dyspeptic about the forced intimacy, the pressure cooker, the soothing ding and it all sounds wonderfully lyrical. But still, it’s just an elevator. Hardly road trip status.

And yet, these elevators are different. They are Trump elevators and we know he enjoys manufacturing iconic moments. Remember what he did for the escalator? Take the grand entrance he made in July, 2015, descending the Trump Tower hotel escalator for his presidential announcement (http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/video/watch-donald-trumps-grand-escalator-entrance-presidential-announcement-31802261). Nothing about this scene was legit. The ‘homemade’ signs in the video (https://twitter.com/meganspecia/status/610847067427221504/photo/1 ) were supplied by the Trump team, the people in the video are actors paid $50/head to populate the space and like well-timed extras, they cheer on cue, (http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/donald-trump-campaign-offered-actors-803161) , and even the use of the music, "Rockin' in the Free World" by Neil Young, was unauthorized  (http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/neil-young-donald-trump-spar-over-rockin-in-the-free-world-use-20150617 ).

The Trump Tower elevator, however, smacks of something slight more Machiavellian and I don’t mean in the modern political sense. I do mean that there is something … power-mad about it, something perniciously narcissistic, something 'Idi Amin despotic' about it. It's akin to inviting Mitt Romney for dinner, offering a first course of his own soul, with some fava beans and a nice Chianti, and then making sure the press were present to bear witness. (On that point, this dinner was not the first time Trump made the press play Where’s Waldo. A pattern is developing and while it signals a troubling secrecy, I think it speaks to Trump enjoying making people chase him.)

Television and social media offer Trump’s amour-propre a round-the-clock biofeedback boost. This hunger would have been thwarted when his arrival at the back door of the White House, via the South Lawn, on November 10th was arranged so it would not be viewable by the public. Trump was further denied the trophy 4-shot photo op with the President and the First Lady (which would have looked wonderful on the mantelpiece next to his sons’ big game-hunting photos).

But that White House visit was only one moment, forgotten now in the endless news feed. My guess is that Trump has a whole new way to make himself feel good. It’s really just speculation, but perhaps Trump’s new idea of Reality TV is watching elevator security camera footage every night, relishing in the daily parade of politicians, statesmen, and personalities traveling up to the 58th floor to kneel at his feet in humble supplication.


Maybe that’s the case, maybe not. What would make me happy is to imagine that one of those elevator passengers would figure out they are being filmed and go all Buddy the Elf with the Trump elevator buttons (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bH3oNBnEqu8).