There might be no better sign of the state of the internet this year than the fact that a potential meme about the president awkwardly drinking water was quickly eclipsed by news of groping allegations against Democratic Senator Al Franken, and then that both of those stories were eclipsed by a tweet from the president. Pretty much 2017 in a nutshell.
But how is everyone else doing? Well, perhaps we shouldn’t have asked…Treasury Secretary Steven McDuck
What Happened: Just when you thought that the Trump administration was getting better with that whole “bad optics” thing…
What Really Happened: You have to give it to US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin. At a time when Republicans are under fire for a tax overhaul that vastly favors the rich, he managed to conjure up a photo-op that made himself and wife Louise Linton look like cartoonishly insensitive wealthy buffoons.
Sure, there’s a context. It’s from a tour of the DC Bureau of Engraving, and the banknotes feature Mnuchin’s signature for the first time. But really, context only means so much when dealing with something like this, as Twitter was quick to explain.
Well, at least no Democratic congressman is using the image in advertisements to specifically link it to the ongoing tax debate to… Oh, wait.
The Takeaway: Who knew that laughing at ill-considered publicity photos of rich folk could be quite so therapeutic?
Another Verifiable Mess
What Happened: Twitter starts to finally clean house, and not everyone is excited.
What Really Happened: As anyone who’s been following this column for any length of time already knows, Twitter has come under fire a lot recently over its verification policies. Last week, after an uproar over the organizer of the Charlottesville rally getting a “verified” check mark, things began…
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