Erin Aubrey Kaplan

We’re All in the Ghetto Now

By ERIN AUBRY KAPLAN
MARCH 24, 2018

LOS ANGELES — During President Trump’s fund-raising trip to Beverly Hills, Calif., this month — the first time he’d come to the official state of resistance since becoming president — a couple of friends of mine took to the streets, along with hundreds of others, to protest. But the visit was highly stage-managed, and Mr. Trump never faced the crowd; the most my friends could do, they said, was raise a middle finger to the sky as his aircraft flew overhead.

It’s a funny image, but also a stark reminder that we have a president who assiduously avoids the majority of the public that disagrees with him. In the nation’s most populous state, people turned out to meet their leader, and their leader refused to appear. This reinforced something I’ve felt since the beginning of the Trump era: We’re all in the ghetto now.