He finally spit it out
Jennifer Rubin on Trump’s too little too late:
He had to begin with some self-congratulations on the economy — because his accomplishments are what he really cares about. He told the country, “To anyone who acted criminally in this weekend’s racist violence, you will be held fully accountable. Justice will be delivered.” He finally spit it out by calling racism “evil” and condemning the “KKK, neo-Nazis, white supremacists and other hate groups.”
He read from a teleprompter. Speaking from his heart would have been impossible, given his obvious lack of passion and willful blindness over the past couple of days. He did not mention the “alt-right,” nor did he announce he is firing Stephen K. Bannon, who once bragged he gave the alt-right a platform at Breitbart. He did not announce any specific policy measures. He did not apologize for his moral obtuseness. This was the weakest statement he could have gotten away with, 48 hours too late. Why did it have to come to this?
Because he is what he appears to be: a terrible, malevolent, hostile, self-aggrandizing, stupid human being. He hasn’t got a single quality or skill that would enable him to stop being what he appears to be.
One might conclude from Trump’s foot-dragging and obsession with stoking racial tensions (e.g. his vote fraud commission, his crusade against legal and illegal immigrants, etc.) that, despite his apologists’ protestations, his campaign message was aimed at white resentment. Trump continues to tell those who want to “take back their country” that “their” country is being overrun by foreigners, non-Christians, non-whites. The majority of his followers had a more benign, non-racial interpretation (take the country back from liberals, elites, urbanites, etc.), but it surely hit home and brought out from the shadows Duke and his ilk.
It’s where he feels at home.
There is another more mundane explanation for Trump’s grudging, belated statement and refusal even now to reject support from white nationalists — just as he refuses to speak a critical word about Vladimir Putin. This is classic narcissistic behavior. The sole determination of whether Trump likes someone (Saudi royalty, thuggish leaders, etc.) is whether they praise him. It’s always and only about him. He has been far more antagonistic toward Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and his own attorney general (or even Ken Frazier of Merck, who resigned from Trump’s manufacturing council) than he has been toward white nationalists because the former were disloyal in his mind, the only unforgivable sin in the Trump White House.
Quite. He is exactly what he appears to be.
That sentence is about 12 words too long. Here: He hasn’t got a single quality or skill.
I wish I could believe that, but I know too many Trump supporters to give it credence.
The more benign, non-racial interpretation is hardly any better.
Is not either too long! He does have qualities – bad ones, but they’re qualities. And he does have skills – he’s good at getting away with cheating, for instance. But he doesn’t have the ones that would enable him to stop being what he appears to be, which was the theme of the post. (I don’t usually have themes, but this one developed a theme.)
Sheesh, editors.
It’s worth realizing or repeating that Trump can’t stop Trump. Whatever qualities he has he has no quality to cease his own qualities…all of them unfortunately incompatible with a normal human.
@Stewart wow, did he really tweet that???
@guest:
Yes, it’s completely real. With tweets that show up on FB, they can of course be faked and what also sometimes happens is that something much older from a real account is suddenly dredged up and it seems like a reaction to something topical but isn’t, nor is it, however, faked. So it’s always worth checking, but the first whiff I got of this, I went straight to the real account and there it was. So, yes, Trump is so crass that what he really says seems like someone’s parodying him to make him look even worse.