Typically, the White House at minimum releases its own pictures of bill and resolution signings. In fact, the press is often ushered into the Oval Office for these occasions and journalists shoot their own footage and photographs of the event, which are then distributed to all of the major news organizations.
Since Trump’s entire Presidency has been dedicated to undoing the achievements of Former President Barack Obama, and since Trump has used every one of these opportunities as a triumphant photo op to stoke his rancid voter base, what could possibly be the reason for this?
A little over a month after his inauguration, on Feb. 28, 2017, President Trump signed HJ Resolution 40, a bill that made it easier for people with mental illness to obtain guns. CBS News then asked the White House to release the photograph of Mr. Trump signing the bill, making the request a total of 12 times.
These photos are always released, but strangely this one wasn't. CBS was so persistent that they prompted a terse one-line response from Trump’s talking parrot, Sarah Huckabee Sanders:
"We don't plan to release the picture at this time."
Could it possibly be that the photo would show Trump flanked by a gaggle of gloating, grinning Republicans whose political fortunes might take a serious tumble this November in the wake of yet another N.R.A-inspired massacre of school-age students? That it would show a smug Trump basking in the glow of his adoration by a grateful N.R.A?
Yes, that’s exactly what it would show. It would show something the country really needs to see, while all the bodies are being buried next week.
On the day the bill was signed, the National Rifle Association (NRA) put out a press release quoting NRA Executive Director Chris Cox: "Today marks a new era for law-abiding gun owners, as we have now have a president who respects and supports our right to keep and bear arms."
But right now we’re hearing nothing from those folks at the N.R.A. They've gone to ground, the way they always do after another bloodletting sacrifice to their Gun God. Their silence speaks volumes. As does the White House’s refusal to release this signing photo.
President Obama had pushed for the rule following the Sandy Hook massacre and it went into effect in December 2016. Had it been allowed to remain effect, it would have added about 75,000 names of mentally ill Americans to a database that would have stopped them from buying a gun.
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Thursday morning CBS News asked the White House again if it would release the photo of the signing, but received no response.
Why is Trump so afraid of releasing this photograph? Isn’t he proud of himself? After all, that rule he repealed only applied to Social Security recipients incapable of managing their own affairs, because of "marked subnormal intelligence, or mental illness, incompetency, condition, or disease."
It wouldn’t have stopped the 20-year old who shot up the Parkland from buying an AR-15 and murdering everyone he could find with it.
So why is Trump so afraid of letting the rest of the country see what he did?
Oh, wait! The next one….