No, Donald Trump didn't invent time travel; he just appointed the whitest and male-est cabinet since Reagan. We're not actually stuck in the '80s; it just feels like we're stuck the '80s. (Trump's relationship with Russia, on the other hand, is pure 2017.)
Since the inauguration, major brands and major dictionaries alike have been brilliantly trolling Trump and his antiquated ways. Last week, they were joined by the Swedish government, when Deputy Prime Minister Isabella Lövin posted a photo of herself and seven other female officials signing a law to fight climate change. (The photo was a direct parallel to an earlier one of Trump, surrounded by men, signing legislature against reproductive rights. Eye roll.) Today, the latest and perhaps greatest of Trump-trolling comes from former chief official White House photographer Pete Souza. And it is making us smile, cry, and cringe all at the same time.
Souza posted an Instagram photo (tagged location: "The Obama White House") that shows the former president "meeting with top advisors," Souza explains in his caption. The photo, he adds, hasn't been intentionally cropped; it shows the four meeting participants from the waist down only — placing visual emphasis on the fact that the three "top advisors" are wearing skirts.
"I guess you'd say I was trying to make a point," Souza concluded. The image draws a marked contrast between Obama's gender-integrated cabinet and Trump's white-boy's club.
“It’s a real backslide,” Debbie Walsh, the director of the Center for American Women and Politics, told Refinery29 of Trump's embarrassing lack of female cabinet members.
In reporting on the Souza photo, Time's Motto publication quoted Gretchen Carlson, who wrote: “Women not being selected for more than a few high-level posts should be a bipartisan concern.” Unfortunately, crossing party lines for the greater good is not something this administration seems remotely interested in.
At least the country — and the internet — has noticed.