And boy, there's a lot of dumping to do. I think the scariest thing about Trump's walk back of his Nazi condemnation is this: A lot of folks thought he was erratic and uninformed but found enough things about him to like. The rationale for supporting someone like that was "He'll surround himself with good, level-headed experienced people and they'll stop him from nuking Kathy Griffin's house or whatever nutty thing he seemed like he might do."
What happened yesterday proved that even if does have good, level-headed experienced people, they can't even stop him from undoing their work. They couldn't even prevent him from saying, more or less, that there are good people among the Neo-Nazis.
The thing I always wonder about with politicians — and not just Trump — is how much of their odd behavior is because of one or two powerful (i.e., wealthy) people they're trying to impress. Every so often, you'll see some Congressperson suddenly, out of nowhere, declare something like, "We need to investigate the robots that are sneaking into our homes and stealing all our yogurt!" And you wonder where the hell that came from.
I find myself imagining a dinner with a very rich potential campaign donor who says, "Well, Congressman…I'd like to help you out with a few million but what I'm looking for is a guy who's going to get serious about all these thousands of reports of yogurt-stealing robots." And the Congressguy instantly says, "Oh, I'm right on top of that, sir. I've been researching that shocking situation and…well, just wait'll you see my press conference tomorrow about it."
It just seems to me that a lot more of our illogical governance is caused by one or two phone calls that we never know about and can't possibly factor in when we try to figure out the mindset of our leaders. Wonder if someone Trump didn't want to piss off called and told him, "You had it right on Saturday and wrong on Monday. Go back to Saturday!" And now this…
- Jonathan Chait writes of the White House aides who have done so much to shield the public from Trump's racist beliefs. I'm still sticking to my position that Trump is not a racist but I'm having more and more trouble convincing myself.
- German Lopez says that Trump's talking points on Charlottesville are coming right off of Fox News. We'll know for sure if he starts selling gold — the kind of you buy for investment — for five or ten times its actual value.
- Trump tried the silly "slippery slope" argument about how if we get rid of all the statues of Robert E. Lee, is George Washington next? To me, those are usually like "If we get rid of the traffic light at Elm and 3rd Street, where does that lead? Do we get rid of all the traffic lights everywhere?" Matt Yglesias has more on Trump's ridiculous manipulation of history.
- And Kevin Drum addresses the claim that to lose Confederate War statues is to lose a piece of history. Those statues weren't put up to remind all of history. They were put up to remind black people who's in charge.
- Trump was supposed to call the Mayor of Charlottesville but as of now, he hasn't. Actually, I was under the impression that Trump never called anyone; that his working premise was that since he was the most powerful man in the world, he didn't call people. They had to call him.
- Ryan Lizza thinks that firing Steve Bannon, as has been called "imminent" for several months now, won't change much of anything. I
thinkhope this is a growing sentiment. - The prominent Conservative Jonah Goldberg does not like how "his side" has embraced the alt-right to gain power.
As we all know, Trump has been threatening to discontinue the Cost Sharing Reduction Subsidies that the Federal government makes to keep Obamacare viable. Trump seems to want to destroy Obamacare that way on the questionable premise that no one will then blame him and everyone will blame Obama and his care. But as Kevin Drum (him again!) notes, that could mean that the federal government will spend more, not less on medical care for poor people. This is not something that Trump's base should like. (This just in: A White House aide says the payments will continue.)