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Trump Turns Foster Care Into a Photo-Op, and the Contrast Writes Itself
The White House staged a foster-care event with Melania Trump and an executive order meant to look humane and hands-on, but the broader political effect was another reminder that Trumpworld likes the emotional optics of care far more than the boring work of governing. The event was real enough, and the policy subject is important enough, but the administration’s instinct to wrap serious social policy in self-congratulation and branding blunts the message. It also invites the obvious criticism that the White House is chasing a tenderness rebrand while continuing to govern with all the subtlety of a wrecking ball.