The White House turned down the lights for President Trump’s news conference on Friday after the Supreme Court decision that struck down his sweeping tariffs.
“President Trump will not be stopped,” Steven Cheung, a White House spokesman, said in a social media post highlighting the shadowy lighting. He called the tonal shift “Dark MAGA.”
Reeling from the court decision that dealt a major blow to his signature economic policy, Mr. Trump and his aides appeared to again be fixating on his predecessor and nemesis, former President Joseph R. Biden Jr, to set the mood of the event.
In the months before the 2022 midterms, Mr. Biden, struggling against declining approval ratings as he sought to rally support for his party, framed much of his campaign messaging in terms of defending democracy against Mr. Trump and what he called the extremism of MAGA Republicans.
Speaking outside Independence Hall in Philadelphia, the birthplace of the Constitution, Mr. Biden painted a dark portrait of a democracy on the brink. The stage, and the hall, were darkly lit, and Mr. Biden was flanked by Marine guards silhouetted in shadow against the building. The dim stage lights were colored blue and red, invoking the American flag, but the lights surrounding Mr. Biden himself were a foreboding, shadowy red.
The image was ominous. To Mr. Biden’s allies, it effectively conveyed a sense of urgency and signaled a deviation from Mr. Biden’s usual message encouraging bipartisanship and political compromise. To Mr. Biden’s critics, it was divisive, alarming, even authoritarian.
Mr. Trump’s mood lighting on Friday was not quite so dramatic. The lights in the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room in the White House dimmed in the minutes before Mr. Trump took the stage, casting the room in a muted blue and gold palette.
The setting also appeared to be invoking “Dark Brandon,” an old political meme that flipped a right-wing pejorative label for Mr. Biden on its head. By the time of Mr. Biden’s speech in September 2022, the Biden White House had begun leaning into the meme, posting images of the president with glowing eyes that shoot laser beams. After the midterms, the president’s re-election campaign began selling “Dark Brandon” coffee mugs.
Chris Cameron is a Times reporter covering Washington, focusing on breaking news and the Trump administration.
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