Before Mark Bouris met Donald Trump, Trump’s people handed him three rules.
What happened next told him everything about the man.
There were three rules. One, do not shake his hand: Trump is a germaphobe, and at the time people thought that was strange. “Now everybody says it makes sense,” Bouris said on the Switzer Show, “because that’s how you transfer infections.” Two, call him ‘Mr Trump’, because the whole show was built on the name. Three, say nothing about his hair.
Bouris broke the first rule on purpose. When Trump walked up, he put his hand straight out and said, “G’day, Donald,” and watched the PR person have a fit in the corner. Trump looked at him, stared, and gave nothing away.
“Most people have a tell,” Bouris said. “There’s just no tell.”
The interview itself needed managing. Even then, Bouris said, Trump went hard on China, and China is Australia’s largest trading partner. Bouris did not want to rattle the Chinese importers watching, so he changed the topic to move him off it. “Remember what happened to Scott Morrison,” he said.
What stayed with Bouris was the consistency. He calls Trump “probably the greatest marketer of all time,” a man who went “from a TV guy to President of the United States in two rounds.” The suit was the same, the solid tie ran past the belt line, the walk was the same, the topics were the same. On the sheet of photos from the shoot, Bouris said, every frame of him was different and every frame of Trump was identical.
Then there was the language. On air, Trump’s word choice was basic, pitched at the widest audience without talking down to it. Off air, Bouris said, he was more eloquent and more educated, a different presence entirely. “You don’t have to like him or his policies,” Bouris said, “but you have to respect him.”
Mark Bouris was speaking with Peter Switzer on the Switzer Show.
