Trump was widely criticized for his reaction to the violence in Charlottesville. At first he said he was against the violence by many sides, not mentioning the role of the neo-Nazis/white supremacists. Presumably he didn’t want to alienate some of his supporters?
One of my senators sent an email about it. It included:
The President of the United States should serve as an example for the rest of the country, but it appears that the rest of us have to serve as an example for him.
The country did and Trump relented:
But a lot of people say that was too little, too late. And Andy Borowitz doesn’t even give him credit for changing his mind:
A disturbing hostage video surfaced on Monday showing an American man woodenly reciting words that were not his own.
The video, which was broadcast on all the major news networks, raised concerns for the man, whose robotic performance indicated that he was reading a prepared statement under duress.
While the man appeared well fed and, to a certain extent, healthy, his facial expressions and body language convinced experts that the act of reciting the prepared text was an extraordinary ordeal for him….
Do you think Borowitz is being unfair? Do you think Trump was being sincere?
Difficult to answer either of your questions, Jean.
Fact is that no matter whether Trump is “sincere” (in this case) or not he blew his credibility some time ago. There is no going back. How his family, his supporters, his own party, all of them just stand by and let the guy fall to pieces I do not know, do not understand. What is happening to this human being called Trump has all the qualities of a Shakespearean Greek tragedy in the making.
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But he’s not falling to pieces, he’s just being Trump. His family, friends and legal advisors have tried to stop his self-damaging tweets, but no luck.
My favorite Seth Meyers quote is, “To be clear, I’m not criticizing Trump for taking vacations. I’m criticizing him for being a lying hypocrite.”
https://youtu.be/0SMGaQqHyTo
I agree with Borowitz.
Yes.
As far as I’m concerned, he can’t redeem himself, no matter what he says now. It’s too late. I think he secretly supports the white supremacists—it shows in his past actions, and what he says and does now. Deep, passionate feelings cannot be masked and hidden by empty words.They will always come through.
Mostly he attacks when criticized, so he must have felt he had to do something different this time. Those were clearly not his words, and it’s not his style to conform for very long.
it’s always obvious when he’s been advised to do damage control.
it’s never the way he really speaks. he doesn’t seem to have a rich enough vocabulary.
he uses simple words like a 5th grader. “it’s a bad thing.”
those are “bad people.” he talks that way and he tweets that way.
it sounded like a script written for him.
and he either read it or was able to memorize it.
the person who wrote it for him probably believes the words he said.
I doubt that trump does.
his main concern is staying right by his supporters and to how he ‘appears’ in the press. a self serving narcissist all the way.
He has already bounced back, and I partially agree with him. Some groups on the radical left also endorse violence. See
The Rise of the Violent Left
Antifa and the Alt-Right, Growing in Opposition to One Another
A good topic for a future post.