Guardian - 22 January 2018, 15:16 (+ 2296 days 17 hours and 12 minutes) International
In a recent picture, the Resolute desk had nothing on it but a phone, a coaster, a marker pen and a wooden box. Is he lazy or just efficient?It is not often that Donald Trump puts one in mind of Albert Einstein, but the official White House picture of him at a near-empty desk in the Oval Office during the government shutdown (or, as the official caption has it, “Democrat shutdown”) recalls a quip often attributed to the great scientist: “If a cluttered desk is a sign of a cluttered mind, of what, then, is an empty desk a sign?”Close scrutiny of the photo reveals that the shiny Oval Office desktop has nothing on it but a telephone, a coaster, a black Sharpie marker and a wooden box, perhaps for cigars or the ears of Trump’s enemies. No computer, no photographs, no paper. At the very least, you would think, a presidential desk should have a sign reading “The buck stops here” or a plastic action figure of Donald Trump, flatteringly moulded with disproportionately enormous hands. Or a red nuclear button, so much bigger than Kim Jong-un’s. Continue reading...