Donald Trump, clad in a red bathrobe, tiptoes down the long hall of the White House private quarters and knocks on a closed door he tries to open. It’s locked.
“Melania, hurry up, almost time to go,” he says, placing his lips to the door.
“I’m not going, Donald.”
“You have to.”
“You do. I don’t.”
“You promised you’d go.”
“I’ll be out when I’m ready.”
“Do you always have to keep your door locked?”
The president knows the answer. He returns to his bedroom to shower and dress. In the dining room he eats a hearty breakfast by himself. Melania enters in a black dress, long and sleek, and asks, “Will we be safe?”
“Of course. The secret service is great.”
“I mean emotionally.”
“Melania, we’re going to have a historic day.”
After huge Air Force One lands in Dayton the Trumps enter a beast and go to a hospital to visit survivors, relatives, and first responders. Fake news has been banned and only members of the presidential media team take pictures and shoot film. In less than two hours the visit is over and the Trumps return to their plane for the flight to El Paso.
Hoping to relax, he gets tense watching Fox News. Dayton Mayor Nan Whaley and Senator Sherrod Brown are being interviewed.
“I told the president that we need action on gun control,” Whaley says. “And he said, ‘We’re going to do something.’”
Mayor Whatley continues, “I told him, ‘How about getting an assault weapons ban, something President Obama couldn’t do.’”
Trump made no commitment but Mayor Whaley concedes, “The president and Melania said and did the right things in the hospital.”
Throwing his cheeseburger onto the plate, Trump shouts, “Get me my goddamn tweeter.”
He tweets the nation and world that he’d just had a “warm & wonderful visit. Tremendous enthusiasm & even Love.” Then he had to watch Whaley and Brown “totally misrepresenting what took place inside of the hospital. Their news conference… was a fraud.”
Trump orders his social media director, “Tell everyone the truth.”
Complying at once, the director tweets, “The president was greeted like a rock star.”
That’s what counts. Trump seems relieved and devours his cheeseburger. Then he walks to Melania’s private room and is allowed to enter. She glances up from her fashion magazine.
“Please don’t knock my hand away this time,” he says. “When we get to El Paso, it’s important we hold hands when we walk down the steps.”
Melania resumes looking at photos.
In El Paso, the first lady, guarded by dark sunglasses, complies with her husband’s request and they descend to the tarmac and greet dignitaries before they enter a beast and go to a hospital for more visits.
A few hours later, back on Air Force One and flying to Washington, D.C., Trump releases a tweet with an attached video of people smiling in the Dayton hospital and himself gesturing thumbs up and these pretty images are accompanied by rousing music. One wonders what they were celebrating.
Now, in the dark heavens, Donald Trump is happy his difficult duties are completed and he’s received more reports confirming that ICE agents earlier today arrested about seven hundred illegal aliens at several companies across Mississippi.
“That’s the biggest operation like this in history,” says Trump. His social media director and staff members smile and flash thumbs up. Melania’s already back in her room.
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