‘Made for TV,’ and where it got us

It’s a cliché as old as Trump-time that the former president’s political style was “made for TV.” During his first campaign, news organizations used those words to describe his rallies, his interviews, and his debate performances; after he took office, they were applied to his faux-suspenseful unveiling of Neil Gorsuch as his first Supreme Court nominee, his early-hours welcome-home ceremony for prisoners freed by North Korea, and a series of boardroom-style roundtables at the White House...