Boy, that speech in Arizona was ugly. Trump's popularity is so low, he's now banking on angry racist voters rallying to keep him in power. I'm sure he still has plenty of non-racist supporters but he's not playing to them. Charles P. Pierce really unloads not so much on Trump but on those who cheer the white supremacist side of him.
Matt Taibbi puts more of the blame on Trump than on his supporters and is a wee bit nicer about it all.
William Saletan thinks that the more Trump talks, the more he's exposed as a hateful fraud. That's true but I think there are a lot of people out there who want to see gay, minority and gender rights rolled back and their advocates punished for ever supporting them. And if it takes a hateful fraud to do that, fine.
As Matt Yglesias notes, Trump's campaign to delegitimize the media is not working. Yeah, but it may be working with his base and that may be all he cares about.
Eric Levitz explains the big fight that's going on in Congress about the budget. Looks messy and we can count on the guy in the White House to not only make it messier but to be proud he's making it messier.
Finally: Trump is reportedly considering a pardon of former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio. When I hear some government official is "considering" something, I often think his or her office has leaked that as a kind of trial balloon to gauge what the response might be. I agree with the A.C.L.U. that a pardon would be "an official presidential endorsement of racism." I also think it would send the message to the Nazi crowd that if you go out and rough up brown people, the White House has your back. Here's some background on Joe Arpaio, a man that some cheer for his utter contempt for the rights of minorities.