It is not often that Donald Trump puts one in mind of Albert Einstein, but the official White House picture of him at a near-empty desk in the Oval Office during the government shutdown (or, as the official caption has it, “Democrat shutdown”) recalls a quip often attributed to the great scientist: “If a cluttered desk is a sign of a cluttered mind, of what, then, is an empty desk a sign?”
Close scrutiny of the photo reveals that the shiny Oval Office desktop has nothing on it but a telephone, a coaster, a black Sharpie marker and a wooden box, perhaps for cigars or the ears of Trump’s enemies. No computer, no photographs, no paper. At the very least, you would think, a presidential desk should have a sign reading “The buck stops here” or a plastic action figure of Donald Trump, flatteringly moulded with disproportionately enormous hands. Or a red nuclear button, so much bigger than Kim Jong-un’s.
It might be unfair to the president to conclude from his blank desk that he never does anything. Perhaps, like many lazy folk, he does all his real work in bed – eating McDonald’s cheeseburgers and watching three televisions at once. But those of us who work at desks have long suspected that a vacant desk bespeaks a vacant mind. The desks of writers, in particular, are reliably strewn with papers, books, half-empty coffee cups, receipts, rubber bands and unidentifiable gewgaws – and who is more responsibly productive than your typical writer?
There may, though, be benefits to blank-desking. According to a 2013 study by Kathleen Vohs and others at the University of Minnesota, “working at a clean and prim desk may promote healthy eating, generosity and conventionality”. Plainly, though, that is not working for Trump. On the other hand, the researchers suggest, “a messy desk may confer its own benefits, promoting creative thinking and stimulating new ideas”. In which case we may all be thankful that the Resolute desk is so spick and span: the last thing the world needs is any more creative thinking from the president.
