Family sitting on gold thrones promise they have interests of all Americans at heart
President-elect Donald Trump has given his first televised interview since winning the electoral vote - sitting on a gold throne.
CBS correspondent (and woman) Lesley Stahl was sent to interview Mr 'Man of the People' Trump at his penthouse in Trump Tower.
Rather unfortunately for his populist, down to earth, standing-up-for-the-little-guy rhetoric - already demonstrably ridiculous coming from a billionaire reality TV star - he and his family chose to appear seated on a set of bizarre golden thrones.
On Sunday indy100 published an article pointing out the incredible irony of the picture of Nigel Farage and Trump in his gold-plated lift. Two super-privileged white men, one of whom is a billionaire.
This nonsensical choice of seating has elicited a similar response on social media:
While the gold thrones were distracting, it's also worth noting what we actually learned from the interview itself.
Stahl questioned Trump on many of his most notorious campaign pledges, and he appeared to backtrack on several major issues
- For example, he will not be appointing a special prosecutor to investigate the Clintons. He says they are "good people" who he "doesn't want to hurt", which is somewhat of a change in tack from calling Hillary a "nasty woman" and Bill a rapist.
- Stahl asked Trump again whether he would be releasing his tax returns. His response? "The only one who cares is, you know, you and a few people that asked that question. Obviously, the public didn't care because I won the election very easily." (Actually, Trump lost the popular vote by a margin of over one million people.)
- Stahl also pointed out to Trump that he had, in the past, criticised lobbyists for "owning politicians because they give them money". His current transition team is a panel of lobbyists, with a few of his older children thrown in for good measure - who owe him everything.
- Stahl pressed him on his plans to deport millions of immigrants from the country, and build a wall to stop others entering. He was then joined by his Slovenian-born wife, Melania.
- Melania reiterated that her cause of choice would probably be campaigning against bullying on social media. Her husband's has, to date, directly insulted almost 300 people and indirectly offended millions with his astonishingly inappropriate tweeting.
- Trump said again: "We're going to knock out Isis." Stahl replied: "Now, how are you going to do that?" Trump snapped: "I don't tell you that. [...] Why do I have to tell you that? [...] I don't want to tell anybody anything."
Ms Stahl summarised the interview by saying "some of his signature issues at the heart of his campaign were not meant to be taken literally, but as opening bids for negotiation."
That ever-so-subtle distinction appears to have been lost on his voters.
They are widely reported to be engaging in racial slurs, hate speech, threats againsts minorities and attacks on African Americans, Muslims and gay people.
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