On Thursday, right around the time of the online breakout of a feud between Elon Musk and Donald Trump that resembled a “Real Housewives” reunion show, we were treated to another episode of what has become the president’s favorite reality TV reboot. Call it “The Apprentice: World Leaders,” and in this latest installment, the German chancellor, Friedrich Merz, appeared alongside Mr. Trump, displaying a sophisticated instinct to hold his ground and emerge unscathed during his visit to the gilded zoo of the Oval Office.
We’re becoming all too used to watching this new kind of presidential meet-and-greet. What traditionally had been a low-stakes and highly choreographed government function has this year been reinvented by Mr. Trump as “Watch What Happens Live” set in the Oval Office (with JD Vance on hand to play the supporting role of the bartender).
For many of us, watching these affairs offers the same queasy experience as the most car-crash-reminiscent reality shows, but with geopolitical consequences. We brace ourselves for the inevitable moments of skirmish and bluster, of braying rudeness and the possible surprise reveal straight out of “Punk’d” or “Jerry Springer.” We grimace in preparation for the next big cringe moment before the show goes to commercial. We watch — often through eyes shielded in dismay — as the president falls just short of resorting to his favorite catchphrase: “You’re fired!”
It’s natural to conflate these moments with the worst — and most addictive — elements of reality TV. Maybe it’s a remnant of my early career writing public-television program guide listings, or perhaps my childhood spent within reach of the Bronx Zoo, but I have come to understand, or at least to tolerate, these diplomacy-shattering displays of ginned-up drama as more like episodes of classic nature programs.
For me, they often recall “The Living Planet,” that grand adventure in BBC travel-budget largess, narrated by David Attenborough, from the 1980s — right around the time a self-styled real estate developer from Queens was buying up New Jersey casinos that would go bankrupt.
Admittedly, I might be overly influenced by the news that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, a recent most-favored autocracy, will be sending two rare Arabian leopards to the Smithsonian’s National Zoo in Washington. Brandie Smith, the director of the zoo, said that Mr. Trump was most interested in learning about the leopards’ “personality.”
Joe Exotic, a reality-show star known for “Tiger King,” who is currently serving a jail sentence for a failed murder-for-hire plot, has suggested that the president should keep the leopards on the White House grounds, adding that other leaders also have their own zoos: “Putin loves tigers,” he said.
The Trump-Merz meeting was certainly no reality TV show brouhaha — Mr. Merz was too artful for that. Instead, it played out like an encounter between a cool, intelligent outsider, sizing up the powers and weaknesses of a formidable fellow mammal who must see himself as an apex predator.
The entire encounter practically begged to be accompanied by the magisterial, breathless English narration of Mr. Attenborough. One could imagine Sir David saying: Observe how Mr. Merz, who is in fact taller than Mr. Trump, manages to look so contained. Notice that he is sitting upright and unruffled, while Mr. Trump leans forward in his usual posture of domination, with his fingertips steepled downward following the trajectory of the long, bright red necktie that dangles between his legs.
In previous Oval Office encounters, we’ve seen the combatants fall into something more akin to furious, bruising bouts of warfare. Volodymyr Zelensky, the president of Ukraine, currently in a fight for his country’s sovereignty, was lectured on his style of dress and his general lack of obsequiousness. Cyril Ramaphosa, the president of South Africa, was ambushed by a video that made unsubstantiated claims about white genocide. Mark Carney, the newly elected prime minister of Canada, had to politely reiterate to the president that his country was not for sale.
Meanwhile, Nayib Bukele, the authoritarian president of El Salvador, was greeted with chummy bonhomie — which wasn’t surprising, given that Mr. Bukele ironically calls himself the world’s coolest dictator and presides over one of the world’s most brutal prisons, at which Mr. Trump’s government aspires to become a repeat customer.
Mr. Merz seemed to heed well the famous words of his predecessor, Angela Merkel, who said of meeting with Mr. Trump during his first term, “Every meeting is a competition.” Mr. Merz handled it well. In Sir David’s imagined words: Observe that Mr. Merz’s color palette is muted, unthreatening. Observe that he lets his host talk and talk and talk and talk — talk himself into a feces-flinging contest with Mr. Musk, in fact — while Mr. Merz saves his words for things that matter.
Given the nature of these engagements, other heads of state may start to choose to skip these meetings altogether. Or perhaps future visitors will study the rules of engagement for reality TV — arriving at the White House and proudly stating, “I’m not here to make friends” — though that’s a game at which it’s proved hard to best Mr. Trump.
They might be better served to follow the cool cunning of Mr. Merz as he outflanks the presumptive alpha mammal.
“May I remind you that we are having June 6 tomorrow? This is D-Day anniversary, when the Americans once ended a war in Europe,” Mr. Merz stated during his visit as he urged Mr. Trump to help bring an end to the war in Ukraine.
“That was not a pleasant day for you?” Mr. Trump replied. “This was not a great day.”
“In the long run, Mr. President, this was the liberation of my country from Nazi dictatorship,” Mr. Merz replied, with grave elegance — proving that some visitors from outside the herd can survive the heehawing of the wild kingdom, and even emerge victorious.
Lisa Schwarzbaum is a former film critic for Entertainment Weekly.
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