David Jackson, USA TODAY
Published 2:27 p.m. ET July 17, 2020 | Updated 2:31 p.m. ET July 17, 2020
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WASHINGTON – Turns out that President Donald Trump’s deregulation event was less weighty than it might have appeared.
The White House installed a colorful backdrop on the South Lawn Thursday to demonstrate what Trump said were “crushing” regulatory burdens on the economy: Three massive, anvil-like weights in the bed of a pick-up truck, with another three suspended in mid-air from a large crane.
But the weights didn’t actually weigh much.
The White House confirmed the weightless nature of the props – real ones would have damaged the truck – but otherwise declined to comment.
At the event, the Trump team underscored the political meaning of the backdrop with not-so-subtle use of color. The blue pickup, painted with the color associated with Democrats, pointed to the left, was burdened with the weights. The red one, facing right, was weight-free.
The blue truck featured a sign that said “40 Years of Regulatory Burden.” The other truck, the one in Republican red, featured a sign that said “4 Years of Regulatory Freedom.”
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Mark Meade, the owner of the crane company retained by the White House, told DailyMail.com that the weights were “kind of a reenactment-type thing,” but declined to provide details because he said he had signed a non-disclosure agreement.
Trump – like other presidents and politicians – have used visual cues to frame an image and drive home a political point. During another regulation event earlier in his presidency, Trump stood next to a massive pile of paper intended to symbolize current federal regulations and – like a mayor at a groundbreaking event – cut a ribbon intended to symbolize the cutting of “red tape.”
“As you can see behind me, we have removed the gigantic, regulatory burden Americans have been forced to carry for decades,” Trump told a group of invited guestsat the event on Thursday.
Social media users compared the weights to those mass objects that Wile E. Coyote used to drop on the Road Runner in the Looney Tunes cartoon of yore.
“Did anyone check behind the weights to see if they had ACME written on them,” tweeted a social media account named Andrew Bloom.
But the event also drew criticism from those who said the props were an inappropriate use of federal dollars.
“Your tax dollars at work,” tweeted legal analyst Renato Mariotti.
The scene comes as Trump has faced increasing criticism for holding campaign-style events during this election year on White House grounds, a break with presidential tradition. Press secretary Kayleigh McEnany responded to that line of questioning Thursday by asserting that the Hatch Act, which prohibits federal employees from using government resources to campaign, does not apply to the president.
“It’s well established that the president and vice president are not subject to the Hatch Act,” McEnany said.
Contributing: John Fritze
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