Ah, convenience. It’s nice to have. A gas station on the side of a highway. A place to stop and to shop. A bathroom at your disposal right when you need it. You know. Convenient things. Things that are convenient.
Donald Trump knows about convenience. On his trip to Kenosha, Wisconsin, where a police officer shot a Black man seven times in the back, sparking protests, he conveniently found a guy who would praise him and the federal troops in the same breath outside a camera shop that burned down during the protests. Trump introduced him as “John Rode III, owner of Rode’s Camera Shop” at a round table discussion, and John Rode III, owner of Rode’s Camera Shop, said, “I just appreciate President Trump coming today, everybody here does. We’re so thankful we got the federal troops here. Once they got here things did calm down quite a bit.” (Democratic governor Tony Evers called in the National Guard.)
John Rode III is not the owner of the shop, however. The guy is the former owner, having sold the place eight years ago, though he stills owns the property on which it sits. The current, actual co-owners, Tom Gram and Paul Willette, declined to take part in the optics play when the White House called on Monday.
“I think everything he does turns into a circus, and I just didn’t want to be involved in it,” Gram told their local news station, TMJ4, which broke the story.
“I think he needs to bring this country together rather than divide it,” Gram added. “I think there’s a lot of good people in this community, and to say that only law enforcement is correct is not the message we need to hear right now.”
A major narrative of the protests has been how owners of stores and restaurants are responding to building damage. Their reactions have been mixed. Many owners of damaged businesses have released messages on social media in support of the protests. Some, the actual owners of the camera shop among them, “understand the protests” but don’t understand property damages to their own stores. Few in either camp have seen an actual president of the United States cherry-pick the person affiliated with a place, so he can sell a message in such a brazen way.
Woulda gotten away with it, too, if it weren’t for that meddling local news.
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