{"id":322,"date":"2017-03-07T15:39:16","date_gmt":"2017-03-07T15:39:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/urbanmole.is\/?p=322"},"modified":"2025-04-02T09:37:02","modified_gmt":"2025-04-02T09:37:02","slug":"trixon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/urbanmole.is\/?p=322","title":{"rendered":"Trixon"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Copyright Urban Mole 2017<\/p><\/div>\n

What if Trump’s first interview as president were taken as found poetry and read as a libretto? And what if it were spliced with John Adams’ opera, Nixon in China<\/em>?
\n
\nDramatis Personae:<\/strong><\/p>\n

CHOU En-lai
\nKISSINGER, Henry
\nMAO Zedong
\nMUIR, David
\nNIXON, PAT
\nNIXON, Richard
\nTRUMP, Donald<\/p>\n

ACT 1<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n CHORUS:\u00a0<\/em>
\n\u00a0Soldiers of heaven hold the sky,<\/em>
\n\u00a0the morning breaks and shadows fly.<\/em>
\n\u00a0Follow the orders of the poor,<\/em>
\n\u00a0your master is the laborer<\/em>
\n\u00a0who rules the world with truth and grace.<\/em>
\n\u00a0Deal with him justly, face to face…<\/em>\n<\/p>\n

MUIR:
\nI want to start — we’re five days in.
\nI know today you plan [to] sign the order,
\nbuild the wall.<\/p>\n

TRUMP:
\nI want to build the wall.
\nWe have to build the wall.
\nWe have to stop drugs
\nfrom pouring in.
\nWe have to stop [the] people
\npouring in-
\nto our country.<\/p>\n

\nNIXON:<\/em>
\nThere’s no reason why you should trust us.<\/em>
\nI’ll never say I’ll do something I cannot do,<\/em>
\nand I’ll do more than you can know.<\/em>
\nbut since you do not know me,<\/em>
\nplease don’t trust me.<\/em>
\nWait. These may be lies.<\/em>\n<\/p>\n

TRUMP:
\nWe’re going to take care of everybody.<\/p>\n

\nCHORUS:<\/em>
\nThe people are the heroes now.<\/em>
\nBehemoth pulls the peasant’s plough.<\/em>\n<\/p>\n

TRUMP:
\nWe’re going to have a very strong
\nborder.
\nWe’re going to have a very solid
\nborder.<\/p>\n

MUIR:
\nYou brought in congressional leaders,
\nspoke at length about the election,
\ntelling them you lost the vote
\n[the popular vote]\nbecause of millions,
\nthree million,
\nfive million,
\nillegal votes.
\nThat would be
\nthe biggest fraud
\nin American history.
\nWhere is the evidence?<\/p>\n

TRUMP:
\nSo let me tell you first of all:
\nso misrepresented.
\nSupposed to be a confidential meeting.<\/p>\n

MUIR:
\nBut you tweeted
\n[of] the millions
\nof illegal…<\/p>\n

TRUMP:
\nLet me — sure.
\nAnd I do
\nand I’m very
\nand I mean it.
\nJust so you know, it was
\nsupposed to be a confidential meeting.<\/p>\n

MUIR:
\nBut three to five million illegal?<\/p>\n

TRUMP:
\nWell, we’re going to find out.
\nIt could well be that much.
\nThere are millions of votes
\nin my opinion.<\/p>\n

MUIR:
\nWhen you say in your opinion
\nthat is something fundamental
\nto our functioning democracy:
\na fair and free election.<\/p>\n

TRUMP:
\nSure. Sure. Sure.<\/p>\n

MUIR:
\nYou say you’re going to launch
\nan investigation.<\/p>\n

TRUMP:
\nSure.
\nDone.<\/p>\n

MUIR:
\nI want to ask about something bigger here.<\/p>\n

TRUMP:
\nThere’s nothing bigger.
\nThere’s nothing bigger.<\/p>\n

MUIR:
\nBut it’s important.<\/p>\n

TRUMP:
\nWell let me just tell you,
\nyou know what’s important?
\nMillions of people
\nagree with me.
\nThey’re very smart people.<\/p>\n

\nPAT NIXON:<\/em>
\nYou won at poker.<\/em>\n<\/p>\n

\nNIXON:<\/em>
\nI sure did.<\/em>
\nI had a system.<\/em>
\nFive Card Stud<\/em>
\ntaught me a lot about mankind.<\/em>
\nSpeak softly and don’t show your hand<\/em>
\nbecame my motto.<\/em>\n<\/p>\n

MUIR:
\nYou’re the president.
\nYou’re sitting across from me right now.<\/p>\n

\nNIXON: <\/em>
\nYou’d never think to look at him<\/em>
\nthat he’s James Bond.<\/em>\n<\/p>\n

\nCHOU:<\/em>
\nAnd all the time<\/em>
\nHe’s doing undercover work.<\/em>\n<\/p>\n

TRUMP:
\nThat’s true.
\nThat’s true.<\/p>\n

MUIR:
\nDo you think that your words matter more now?<\/p>\n

TRUMP:
\nYes,
\nvery much.<\/p>\n

MUIR:
\nThe press secretary
\nsummoning reporters to talk —
\nthe inaugural size —
\ndoes that send to the people [a message]:
\nmore important
\nthan pressing issues?<\/p>\n

TRUMP:
\nWe had a massive crowd of people
\n— we —
\nwe had a crowd.<\/p>\n

\nNIXON:<\/em>
\nMy feet are firmly planted on the ground,<\/em>
\nlike yours, like you I take my stand among poor people.<\/em>
\nWe can talk.<\/em>\n<\/p>\n

TRUMP:
\nI looked over that sea of people
\nand I said to myself
\nWow.<\/p>\n

And I’ve seen crowds before.
\nBig, big crowds.
\nThat was some crowd.<\/p>\n

We had the biggest audience in the history
\nof inaugural speeches;
\nthey like what I’m saying.<\/p>\n

\nNIXON:<\/em>
\nNo one who heard but could admire<\/em>
\nyour eloquent remarks, Premier,<\/em>
\nand millions more hear what we say<\/em>
\nthrough satellite technology<\/em>
\nthan ever heard a public speech before.<\/em>
\nNo one is out of touch, telecommunication<\/em>
\nhas broadcast your message into space.<\/em>
\nYet soon our words won’t be recalled,<\/em>
\nwhile we do what we can to change the world.<\/em>\n<\/p>\n

MUIR (voice-over):
\nWhen we come back, what the president revealed to us
\nabout torture and waterboarding.<\/p>\n

ACT 2<\/strong><\/p>\n

TRUMP:
\nI love Chicago.
\nI know Chicago.
\nChicago is great.
\nIt can be great.
\nIt can’t be great if people are shot
\nwalking the street for a loaf.
\nIt can’t be great.<\/p>\n

\nMAO:<\/em>
\nWe know the great silent majority<\/em>
\nwill bide its time.<\/em>\n<\/p>\n

\nKISSINGER:<\/em>
\nThere you’ve got me. I’m lost.<\/em>\n<\/p>\n

\nCHOU:<\/em>
\nThe Chairman means the dead.<\/em>\n<\/p>\n

TRUMP:
\nI will tell you
\nI have spoken
\nto others in intelligence
\nand they are big
\nbelievers in
\nwaterboarding.<\/p>\n

MUIR:
\nYou did tell me…<\/p>\n

TRUMP:
\nBecause they say
\nit does work.
\nIt does work.<\/p>\n

\nMAO:<\/em>
\nWe’ve more than once led the right wing forward<\/em>
\nwhile text book cadres swung back<\/em>
\ninto goose-step, home at last.<\/em>
\nHow your most rigid theorist<\/em>
\nrevises as he goes along.<\/em>\n<\/p>\n

MUIR:
\nMr. President…<\/p>\n

TRUMP:
\nNow, personally…<\/p>\n

MUIR:
\nYou told me during [a] debate
\nthat you would bring back waterboarding.<\/p>\n

TRUMP:
\nYeah I would do
\nwhat I would do.
\nI want to keep our country safe.
\nI want to keep our country safe.<\/p>\n

\nCHOU:<\/em>
\nYou’ve said<\/em>
\nthat there’s a certain well know tree<\/em>
\nthat grows from nothing in a day,<\/em>
\nlives only as a sapling,<\/em>
\ndies just at its prime,<\/em>
\nwhen good men raise it<\/em>
\nas their idol.<\/em>\n<\/p>\n

MUIR:
\nWhat does that mean?<\/p>\n

\nNIXON:<\/em>
\nNot the cross?<\/em>\n<\/p>\n

TRUMP:
\nWhen they’re shooting,
\nwhen they’re chopping
\noff the heads
\nof our people,
\nand other people;
\nwhen they are chopping off the heads of people,
\nwe have to fight!<\/p>\n

\nMAO:<\/em>
\nThe Liberty Tree. Let it pass.<\/em>
\nIt was a riddle, not a test.<\/em>\n<\/p>\n

MUIR:
\nLet me ask you:
\nafter the oath of office
\nthey give you nuclear codes,
\n“the biscuit.”
\nSobering moment?<\/p>\n

TRUMP:
\nWhen they explained what it represents,
\nthe kind of destruction —
\nit’s a sobering moment.
\nIt’s very, very,
\nvery scary,
\nin a sense.<\/p>\n

MUIR:
\nDoes it keep
\nyou up at night?<\/p>\n

TRUMP:
\nNo.<\/p>\n

ACT 3<\/strong><\/p>\n

MUIR:
\nIs this the Muslim ban?<\/p>\n

TRUMP:
\nNo
\nit’s not the Muslim ban,
\nbut it’s countries
\nthat have tremendous terror.
\nAnd it’s countries —
\npeople are going to come
\nand cause tremendous problems.
\nOur country has enough.<\/p>\n

MUIR:
\nWhich countries?<\/p>\n

TRUMP:
\nYou look at what has happened —
\nI’ve a list.
\nYou will be thrilled.
\nPeople that come,
\nin many cases,
\nin some cases,
\nwith evil intentions.
\nI don’t want that.
\nThey’re ISIS.
\nFalse pretence.
\nI don’t want that.<\/p>\n

\nPAT NIXON:<\/em>
\nLet the expression on the face<\/em>
\nof the Statue of Liberty change just a little,<\/em>
\nlet her see what lies inland:<\/em>
\nacross the plain one man is marching,<\/em>
\nthe Unknown Soldier has risen from his tomb,<\/em>
\nlet him be recognised at home.<\/em>
\nThe Prodigal. Give him his share:<\/em>
\nthe eagle nailed to the barn door.<\/em>
\nLet him be quick.<\/em>
\nThe sirens wail as bride<\/em>
\nand groom kiss through the veil.<\/em>\n<\/p>\n

TRUMP:
\nI think Europe has made
\na tremendous mistake
\nallowing these millions of people to go
\ninto Germany
\nand other countries —
\nall you have to do is look.
\nIt’s — it’s
\na disaster
\nwhat’s happening over there.
\nSo look, look,
\nour country has problems,
\nbelieve me.<\/p>\n

MUIR:
\nAre you at all concerned it’s going to cause
\nmore anger among [the] Muslims?<\/p>\n

TRUMP:
\nAnger?
\nThere’s plenty of anger.
\nHow can you have more?
\nLook, look,
\nDavid, David,
\nI mean, I know
\nyou’re a sophisticated guy.
\nThe world is a mess —
\nas angry as it gets.<\/p>\n

What, you think this is going to cause
\na little more anger?<\/p>\n

The world is an angry place.
\nThe world is a total mess.
\nThe world is a mess.<\/p>\n

We should have taken the oil —
\nYou wouldn’t have ISIS.<\/p>\n

MUIR:
\nYou’ve heard the critics who say
\nthat would break international law.<\/p>\n

TRUMP:
\nCan you believe that?
\nWait a minute.
\nCan you believe that?
\nWho are the critics that say that?
\nFools!
\nI don’t call them critics;
\nI call them fools.
\nWe should have kept —
\nexcuse me —
\nWe should have taken
\nthe oil.
\nAnd if we took [it]\nyou wouldn’t have ISIS
\nand we would have wealth.<\/p>\n

ACT 4<\/strong><\/p>\n

MUIR:
\nCould you hear the voices — the women’s march?
\nWe know there were more than a million,
\nAnd you are their president now.<\/p>\n

\nCHORUS OF THE RED DETACHMENT OF WOMEN:<\/em>
\nYoung as we are,<\/em>
\nwe expect fear,<\/em>
\nevery year<\/em>
\nmore of us bow<\/em>
\nbeneath the shadow<\/em>
\nof the next blow.<\/em>\n<\/p>\n

TRUMP:
\nIt’s true.<\/p>\n

\nLAO SZU:<\/em>
\nOh, what a day!<\/em>
\nI thought I’d die!<\/em>
\nThat luscious thigh,<\/em>
\nthat swelling breast,<\/em>
\nscented and greased,<\/em>
\na sacrifice<\/em>
\nrunning with juice<\/em>
\nat my caress.<\/em>
\nShe was so hot<\/em>
\nI was hard put<\/em>
\nto be polite<\/em>
\nwhen the first cut<\/em>
\n— Come on, you slut! —<\/em>
\nscored her brown skin<\/em>
\nI started in,<\/em>
\nman upon hen!<\/em>\n<\/p>\n

MUIR:
\nCould you hear them from the White House?<\/p>\n

TRUMP:
\nNo.<\/p>\n

But the crowds were large.
\nYou’re going to have large
\non Friday too,
\nmostly pro-life.
\nAnd I’ll say this —
\ndidn’t realize,
\nbut was told —
\nyou’ll have a large
\ncrowd of people.
\nI don’t know,
\nas large or larger.<\/p>\n

MUIR:
\nI don’t want to compare crowd sizes again.<\/p>\n

TRUMP:
\nNo, you shouldn’t.
\nBut let me just say,
\nwhat they do say is
\nthe press doesn’t cover them.<\/p>\n

MUIR:
\nWe saw the marches around the country
\nAnd you are their President now.
\nDo you sense the responsibility?<\/p>\n

TRUMP:
\nWell, I do,
\nbut have to say:
\nWe just had an election.
\nAnd they voted in many cases,
\nand some cases, didn’t vote,
\nI imagine.
\nWe did have an election.
\nThat being said,
\nI have responsibility
\nto everybody
\nincluding people that didn’t
\nvote
\nfor
\nTrump.
\nTotally.<\/p>\n

\nLAO SZU:<\/em>
\nThis is the fate of all who<\/em>
\nset small against great.<\/em>
\nLeave it to rot.<\/em>\n<\/p>\n

ACT 5<\/strong><\/p>\n

TRUMP:
\nThis is the Oval Office,
\none of the great spaces.
\nAnd I bring people in:
\nGeneral Motors,
\nFord,
\nthe biggest people.
\nI bring in the labour leaders.<\/p>\n

\nLAO SZU:<\/em>
\nI’m here to liaise<\/em>
\nwith the backroom boys<\/em>
\nwho know how to live.<\/em>
\nAnd me, I contrive<\/em>
\nto catch a few crumbs —<\/em>
\nthe ringleaders’ names<\/em>
\nthe gist of their schemes —<\/em>
\nloose change.<\/em>\n<\/p>\n

MUIR:
\nWhat moves you the most about this room?<\/p>\n

TRUMP:
\nJust the history.
\nThe importance.
\nWhat’s happened here.
\nAndrew Jackson
\nwho a lot
\nof people, they compare
\nthe campaign of
\nwith the campaign of —
\nyou have to go back
\nto 1828
\nbut that seems a comparison for
\n…you know…
\ncertain obvious reasons.<\/p>\n

\nCHOU:<\/em>
\nA bankrupt people repossessed<\/em>
\nthe ciphers of its history<\/em>
\nand not one character could say<\/em>
\nwhether the war was over yet<\/em>
\nor if they’d written off the debt.<\/em>\n<\/p>\n

TRUMP:
\nAdams versus Jefferson,
\nthey say,
\nthis was the most vicious campaign
\never fought for president
\nuntil this.<\/p>\n

\nMAO:<\/em>
\nFounders come first<\/em>
\nthen profiteers.<\/em>\n<\/p>\n

MUIR:
\nThe Dow hit 20,000 today.<\/p>\n

TRUMP:
\nI’m very proud of that.
\nVery proud.
\nFirst time in history.
\nI’m very proud of that.
\nNow, we have to go
\nup, up, up.<\/p>\n

MUIR:
\nMr. President.<\/p>\n

TRUMP:
\nThank you, David.<\/p>\n

MUIR:
\nThank you.<\/p>\n

===== Notes on Production =====<\/p>\n

This work was produced by extracting text both\u00a0from the ABC Trump interview and the Nixon in China libretto. Any text inserted into the interview is presented in square brackets [ ] and is provided for clarity or cadence. The word order of the interview has not been changed. Words and sentences have been elided to remove unwanted repetitions and create, or highlight the absence of, concision. The Nixon in China libretto text is differentiated from the ABC interview by italics and indentation. The full transcript for the ABC Trump interview can be found here<\/span><\/a> and here<\/span><\/a>. (The transcript used for this work was that produced by Fortune as it includes the White House tour.) The full text of the libretto is available from Boosey and Hawkes<\/span><\/a>; a copy can be found here<\/span><\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What if Trump’s first interview as president were taken as found poetry and read as a libretto? And what if it were spliced with John Adams’ opera, Nixon in China?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":320,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[46,53,86],"tags":[125,123,128,124,127,122,126,121],"class_list":{"0":"post-322","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-literature","8":"category-poetry","9":"category-politics","10":"tag-abc","11":"tag-china","12":"tag-interview","13":"tag-john-adams","14":"tag-libretto","15":"tag-nixon","16":"tag-opera","17":"tag-trump"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/urbanmole.is\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/urbanmole.is\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/urbanmole.is\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/urbanmole.is\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/urbanmole.is\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=322"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/urbanmole.is\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":332,"href":"https:\/\/urbanmole.is\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322\/revisions\/332"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/urbanmole.is\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/320"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/urbanmole.is\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=322"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/urbanmole.is\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=322"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/urbanmole.is\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=322"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}