On Politics: Trump’s surreal summer, in photos
Good evening! Look, before you ask — I don't know who Vice President Kamala Harris is going to choose as her running mate, but we are all going to find out soon. Tonight, we're looking at former President Donald Trump's topsy-turvy summer with someone who has literally seen it all: my colleague the photographer Doug Mills.
Trump's surreal summer, in photos
The latest, with 91 days to go
Over the last month, former President Donald Trump has been shot at and crowned for the third time as the Republican presidential nominee. He has watched his opponent, President Biden, get forced out of the race, and has struggled to find his footing as he sizes up his new competition, Vice President Kamala Harris. And let's not forget that he was convicted of 34 felonies this year. My colleague Doug Mills has been there for all of it. In recent weeks, the drama of the Biden campaign may have been the biggest story in politics. But Doug, a photographer who has been taking pictures of presidents since the 1980s, says that what he is witnessing is a campaign unlike anything he has covered before. So today, while the political world waits for the final, veep-shaped puzzle piece in the newly reset race between Trump and Harris, we're going to do something a little different. I called Doug, who was spending a rare day off the trail painting a bedroom in his house, and asked him to tell us about the images he thinks will define Trump's roller coaster of a summer. Our conversation was edited for length and clarity. Doug! You have been there for every huge moment that has shaped the Trump campaign in the past few months, from his criminal trial, through the assassination attempt, to today. How does he change when your camera comes out? Every politician — everybody who is very image-conscious, like he is — is aware of every camera whenever they're around. He's looking at camera angles and what the light is like, and he's very particular about light. During his trial, the still photographers had about 45 seconds to take his picture inside the courtroom. Court officials would announce that we were coming in, and his posture would change immediately. He would get a very defiant, very serious look.
We went from him having a defiant look in the courtroom, to his defiant fist pump in the air after he was shot. I think that's his nature — as a fighter, a scrapper. Also in his DNA is his instinct to be image-conscious. You were at that rally in Butler, Pa., where a gunman tried to kill him. You captured one of the bullets in a photograph, and you took a picture of the moment when Trump pumped his fist. And then you kept taking photographs, and you made another image I want to talk about. Tell me about what's happening in this image.
This was a split second after Trump pumped his fist, and it was really the first time that we could see clearly the blood on his face, and he looks in complete shock. He's looking out into an audience that is scattered, and people are screaming and there's complete chaos out in the crowd. I had never seen a look like that on his face before. This was a vulnerable moment. I look at it now and I think, Gosh, what a campaign we've been through. And we still have three months to go. The next time you saw Trump, you were in the belly of Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, as he stood backstage before his first appearance at the Republican National Convention. It was only two days later. You must have been very shaken. I had never been through a shooting, or seen somebody shot, or even heard an AR-15-style rifle be fired. Everybody kept saying, "You should talk to people," and "Don't be afraid to reach out." I never had time for that. I went from Butler, to home, to Milwaukee. But it's probably the best thing to happen to me, because that's all anybody was talking about. That was probably my therapy.
That Monday night, we were all waiting in a hallway before Trump made his entrance onto the floor. He saw me, and he asked how I was doing. I said: "I'm fine, I'm fine. But how are you doing?" Then he said he was fine, and pointed to his ear and said, "I'm good." There's another behind-the-scenes photograph from the R.N.C. that you took just after Senator JD Vance, then Trump's newly minted running mate, addressed the crowd. There's less tension in this image, and the next generation — Vance and his friend Donald Trump Jr. — is in the foreground here. Trump is in the back.
It's not typical that you can see these behind-the-scenes moments, and they're so important to American politics, to the campaign, everything about it. The former president is watching his son interact with the vice-presidential nominee. There's a lot of chemistry in that triangle. A week later, you were on Trump's plane when he watched the speech President Biden gave about his decision to bow out of the presidential race. What was that like?
In this photo, Trump is witnessing history himself. He's part of the history, but he's also watching it unfold. I look back on this now and I think, "Wow, I was really there." We haven't been through anything like this before, where a former president is watching the current president who is dropping out of the race in competition against him. That was also a moment where Trump's not the focus of the political world. The Democratic campaign is the focus. And now, a couple of weeks later, that largely remains the case. What has it been like to follow Trump during this remarkable period where he has not been the center of attention? Has it changed the way he is acting, or carrying himself? If you're running for president, I think you're always the center of attention no matter what. The narrative in the last couple of weeks has changed because he has a new opponent, but it hasn't changed in my job. My job stays the same. This thing could turn on a dime again. You just never know about politics. Minute by minute, coverage of this election just hasn't stopped. It was only a couple of days later that I was at Mar-a-Lago, watching Trump meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel. These are two men who had kind of a frosty relationship. They went into this meeting and, as they were walking in, the prime minister asked Trump if he could see his wound. Then they sat down for the meeting.
Getting access to these moments is very hard. It comes with trust. I'm grateful to have it. Trump does not love every photo I take — he chastised me once about an angle I had captured while he was meeting with Theresa May, then the prime minister of Britain — but I can't be concerned about that. I have to record history. We are the eyes and the ears of this presidential election, and this is one for the history books. QUOTED AND NOTED Nancy Pelosi on her ruthless political math"My goal is defeat Donald Trump. And when you make a decision to defeat somebody, you make every decision in favor of that. You don't mess around with it, OK? What is in furtherance of reaching that goal? I thought we had to have a better campaign." — Representative Nancy Pelosi, the former House speaker and a Democrat, explaining her quiet but firm push to get President Biden to withdraw from the presidential race. She spoke with Carl Hulse, our chief Washington correspondent, about her new book. A new campaign finance question: Can Trump accept a Cybertruck?It was a weird day on the internet today. My colleague Ken Bensinger watched Trump's livestreamed interview with a 23-year-old online celebrity who offered him lavish gifts — and access to a young, male demographic he's trying to win over. What do you give a former president who has everything? Adin Ross, an internet celebrity known for stirring controversy, answered that question with a gold Rolex watch and a customized Tesla Cybertruck, both of which he presented to Donald Trump during an interview that was livestreamed Monday afternoon. The polarizing car — closely associated with the Trump-supporting chief executive of Tesla, Elon Musk, and subject of an ongoing culture war — is seen in some quarters as an aesthetic violation. It may also be a campaign finance violation. — Ken Bensinger Read past editions of the newsletter here. If you're enjoying what you're reading, please consider recommending it to others. They can sign up here. Have feedback? Ideas for coverage? We'd love to hear from you. Email us at onpolitics@nytimes.com.
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